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i
fStlAS VRldllTfitlNHlNG 1 i BEQUEST )
lUNlVERSnY .rMICHIQANi
llji,i. aENERAL LIBRARY ^
x>-
^^.-tC Ca ^t $^.</^OA^i CAi^
COLLECTANEA
D £
REBUS HIBERNICIS.
VOL. IV.
CONTAINING
NoXin. The lodhan Mo-
rain, or fireaft-plate of
Judgment. The Liath Meificith. The Brazen Image. The Charter Horn. The Harp of Brien Boiromh. The Iri(h Crown. The Paterae Urn, &c. TheCrotal, Corabafhas, or
Cibbual, &c. The Brafs Tools. The Tuagh Snaighte. The Implements of War. The Purin, Seic Seona,
Cloch Tag. The Cead, Rai Re.
The Fainidh-Draoieach. — Tair-Faimhy Boii-Reann, &:c.
No. XIV. A Vindication of the Ancient Hiftory of Ireland , wherein is (hewn
I. The Defcent of its old In- habitants from the Phaeno- Scythians of the Eaft.
a. The early Skill of the Phxno«Scythians, in Na- vigation) ArtS) and Let* tcrs.
3. Several Accounts of the Ancient Infli Bards, au- thenticated from parallel Hiflory, facred and pro- fane, &c.
THE WHOLB ILLUSTRATED BT NOTES AND EBMARKS ON EACH CHAPTER.
WITH COPPER PLATES.
DUBLIN: LUKE WHITE.
K^DCC|LXZXVX.
^■■■••r'
* .
CONTENTS
OF VOL. IV.
Kbb Xin. The lodhan Morabi or Breaft-plate of Judgment^ - . . Page i
The Liath Meificith, ^ - . 13
The Brazen Iinage> *> « 22
The Charter Honi^ . . . ^^
The Harp of Bfien Boirondl^ - •* - 32
The Iriih CiroVm, - - . 37
The Paterae Um, &c. - - 41
The Crotal, Corabftfiias^ or Cibtmal| &c» - 44
Tie Brafi Took, * - - S4
The Tuagh Snaighte, - - 55
The Implements of War, - - - 61
The Purin, Seic Se^nay Clocih Tag^ • - 64
The Cead Rai Re, * 68
The Fainidh-Draoieach. Tair-Faunh, Boil-Reann,
&c. 73
Mr. CyConePs Third Letter, - - - 107
Prqpoiak for collecting Materials for publishing the an- tient and prelent State of the feveral Counties of Ireland, .... 141
Letter from Dr. Macbride, - - 155
No.
I
CONTENTS.
No. XIV. A Vindication of the antient Hiftory of Ireland^
Chip. t. Genealogical Tables of the Irifli Coloniesi II. The Topoghiphical Names of Ireland, 14
III. Expedition of Fartholan,
IV. ^ of Ncmed,
V.
23
40
of the Firbolg, JirD'Omnann,
or Fir Galeon^ - - - 129
VI. Expedition of the Tuatha Dadann, 151 VII. — of Phenius Pharfa, - 254
vin. ^
- of Milefius
291
IX.
rity,
X. Condufiony
proved from Spanifh Autho*
325
335
XI. Of Paganifm in general Of the Pagan Religion of the antient Iriibj - 3^^
IL
}r^
COLLECTANEA
D E
REBUS HIBERNICIS.
<)!tfi'i'»'>'|ii »i|i»»ji >•
NUMB. Xin. VOL. IV.
•■" T r
'-:>
V -
ColleSianea de Rebus Hihernicis-
NUMB. XIII. VOL. IV.
BY C. V A L L A N C E Y, L. L. D.
mmmatmmiim^^JUmA
'^ fie i^ai^anfiverftb a M^Hpr hefirc if Ar^4^ V/j H hJUfy
Gallowanis nomen fixum indiMitU . '. .
& ftiMiAAT de'iliae. GolTelini rctcn Oalloram Hiftor. jiididam, V. p. iiStfi
i Gadibus ^ ^ynq^tm .t*«B||9)^ aMi«% ^iiff MltluiinsadbMa.
Stbabo, Lib. 3. p. 1 7 J.
catdonn^ une oonnoiflance parfait, non feulement det <labtsitnr it*des coutmnef , mais auifi de la Religion Phcnicienne. Ce Commerce m^me ^>>'ai»oitgii J^. finite yegjngr wm.^i lOf d»»oe <te ^pii^, ^Ti'likfilie&i-
-AtHi i0Mrc»<$le# |M^MsA» idbi |08lfi ^ isft «i«ae tto* shfiAmMiMe ^ne ce fut de ces Infulaires, dont h» fimsm flB^Vftfftt Ji csaadfAnee 4« Cuke d' A(larte, c*cft-a-dire d* Ifts, par ie moyen du commerce qu'ils eurent de topf, ttP^ Ar Ids jd^Kt itoi ito atJUnrfqaet.
iAft»b^ deiKoMemi» mcak.iie Lhtef,T. 7.
I itittl^nd thoie that efcape of them, unto the nations, to Tarihini, Pui and Lud, that draw the bow: to Tubal and Javan, TO THE ISLES AFAR OFF, that have not heard my fame, neither have ieen taj glory, and they (hall declare my glory among the Oentiles.
IsAiAB, Uvf 19.
DUBLIN:
PRINTED BT W. SPOTSWOOD. PKINTEI. TO THB ANTIQjIARIAN SOCIETY ;
AND SOLD BY LUKE WHITE, DAME-STREET.
M DCC LXXXIT.
On conr<m<l leg terms aa(dens» dUEarement doifBcs da betctii Jn woafci & fi on lenr ^t s'^c de b ftupiditd, on n*y Toit cm*i|^orai|ce Ac t6ie- ' bits. • Mail rigaorance eft en aoas, 'qni let oonnaiibns miL'
Lett, iur Torig. des Sdencet: addrdUet m M. Voltaire pir NL Ballly.
JLet Orientmz aTooent que let nbms dc Cog & de Magof, de Gin & de Magta» de Tcbib A de MatcUn* font Ijrnonymet. Tcbin eft le mot orin* tal doot noot aYont fmit le nom de la Chine.
Lett, fur TAtlnntide de Piaton. par bL Batllf •
I«t langoet blen connoet, bten etndieet peorent done reveler Torigine dct peuplet, knr pnriin*c, Mt palt qn'ilt ont habtt^, la tenne det ooanai^ £uicet oft iUiint anivei Be le degri de matnrlte de knr e^tfit:
* »
On pent regarder let peoples de la Orece ft de Tltalic eomme let defcendant det Phenident & det Phrygient ; mab let pcuplet dn Mbrd, qd pailaient riRXiAMDOIS ft le Runiqtte, ataient done une origine eommime avec let PHEMICIENS.
Let peuplet en vpiageant n'oat point efaangd de nom, n! d*ld6et: lit ont
impale i det paXt nocnreaux det nomt andent, det nomt fiuhifiers ft chert.
JLe pielcnt eft le fib du pa6d, al lui reftenhle s ee qne nons tiibnt de cet
andens tems cftrUfloire de not fondrtioiis en Amerique oik noot atons
. traniportc la France, TAngleterre ft TEipagnc.
U nc faut pas entreprendre de lever entterement le voile d* rantlqdtd ; ee voile eft chargd du poidt de tant de liecles, il fiaut Unt d'eilbrtt poor en fouiever une partie ; c'eft l»ien aflcz d^apperccToir quelque diofe.
(Ibid,)
T O T H 1
SOCIETY OF ANTIQpARIBS
O F
SCOTLAND^
THIS NUMBER OF THB
COLLECTANEA D£ REBUS HIBERNICIS
IS INSCRIBES,
WITH CHEAT DEPEREKCEi
B Y
^MEIR MOST HUMBLE,
MOST OBEDIENT SERVANT,
iSc. .783^ CHARLES VALLANCEY.
.» ;
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. ; ,. , t J . • .
ERUTA VI6CERIB0S TBRR/E BST NOTITU TANDBM
m 9
• I ' • .
rERJ^ PART& BBLEYIS VlTA^ UNIUSqyE LABORS » AT QFAMTUM Wi'ERlT MULTCRtM VINCERE CURA.
o I irriNAM Kmm mRYwmr coNdbre carmen,
HJBCCE NOVA ALUCIENS STDDIOfinM INMURE REFBRTA LECTOREM, MKRTT^ LAUSRHR Jft INSULA lERNM.
DlreSlions to the Binder.
^W Plate I Facing page it g ' ao
3 »4
4- 30
5 40
6 ■ 4s
7 ■ 5*
S— ^ j4
^ ' cS
10 fe
11 ■6» l» t6
«3--— — 7*
14 ■■ 11 100
T'f^^i^^— — ^P— ^^— ^—— ■*— '
I I— i— — — — — — — n Ball — — ^►ig^iM^w ^^<»*«
PREFACE
SECTION I.
The beginning of nation$, (fays our prince of poets, John Milton) thofe excepted of whom facred books have fpoken, is to this day unknown. Nor only the beginning, but the deeds alfo of many fuc- ceeding ages ; yea, periods of ages, either wholly unknown, or obfcured and blemifbed with fables. That any law or fuperftition of the Druids forbad the Britons to write their memorable deeds, I know ,not why any, out of Cacfar, fliould alledge. He indeed faith, that their doftrine they thought not lawful to commit to' letters j but in moll matters elfe, both in private and publick, among which well may hiftory be reckoned, they ufed the Greek "tongue. And that the Britifli Druids, who taught thofe in Gaui, would be ignorant of any language known and ufed by their difciples, of fo frequently writing other things, and fo inquifitive i»to higheft.
Vol. IV. No. XIII. B would
u
PREFACE.
would for want of recording, be ever children in the knowledge of times and ages, is not likely. What- ever might be the reafon, this we find, that of Britifh aflfairs, from the firft peopling of the ifland, tb the coming of Julius Cafar, nothing certain, either by tradition, hiftory, or antient fame, hath hitherto been left us. That which we have of oldeft feeming, hath by the greater part of judicious antiquaries, been long rejeded as a modern fable *."
Scripture, is certainly the only (Izuidard of all antient hiftory, and the touchftone by which the truth of it may be tried. Heathen writers, who, unaffifted by this, attempt to fearch into antiquity, have no ftay whereon to reft. Herodotus on all oc- cafions talks familiarly of a myriad of years before his time. The Greeks, fpeaking of their own coun- try and its inhabitants, thought it enough to fay that they ever were Avr^x'^^fn, or Aborogines, and the antient Irifh denominated themfelves Atach-tuatb f . In Egypt, the priefts were the poffeffors of learning, and intfufted with the public records. Heredotus, Plato and Diodorus went thither for information ; when they talked of the duration of their monarchy, the round number, the priefts generally aflfeded to fpeak in, was ten thoufand years ago. But they who pretended to be more exad, told Diodorus, that from their firft king Ofiris to Alexander the great, were precifely 23,000 years.
The Greeks ftill knew lefs : they were totally ig- norant of the hiftory of the elder ages and remote
* Milton*8 Hiftory of England.
t O Conor's State of Heathen Irifli, No. XH.
countries ;
PREFACE. iu
countries ; therefore they made their invention fupply the want of the knowledge of fa^,
quicquid Graecia mendax
Audet in hiftoriis
Yet this is the foundation of hiftory imprefled on our minds at fchool ; and with great difficulty can we unlhackle ourfelves from our fchool education, when we come to more mature age. It is not furprizing that the Irifh bards and hiilorians (hould follow the examples of the Greeks, whofe &bles ai^ extolled to the fides by our tutors : and fo wanton have been our own countrymen to miflead the world in our own hiftory, that Jofeph of Exeter, afterwards archbiihop of Bourdeaux, famous in poetry and good learning, under Henry II. and Richard I. compofed a poem under the name of Cornelius Nepos, where he makes the Britons aid Hercules at the rape of Helione, and Apollo to aid them in the Trojan war.'* And indeed this critick age, (fays Selden, fpeaking of the Welfh Brutus) can fcarce any longer endure any nation, their firft fuppofed audiors name, not Italus to the Italian, not Hifpalus to the Spaniard, Scota to the Scot, nor Romulus to his Rome, efpecially this of Brutus *.*'
And the very learned Gebelin exprefles himfelf thus, *• on eft tojours etonn^ quand on voit des favaiis auteurs s*egarer it ce point : il eft vrai que les Grecs eux-memes font de mauvais guides fur Tori-
gin f." -
* Selden'a Notes on Drayton'i Polyalbion. f Hifloriai Clvik du Calendrier.
B 2 How
IV
PREFACE.
How then are we to trace the origin of Weftera nations? Are we to follow the fabulous Greeks, Graeci profefto, levis, inconftans, mendax, fuper- ftitiofa gens femper habiti ; qui x«Tg«5r«25tW«», veritatem novis fubinde figmentis ita immutarunt & pene obliterarunt, ut &c. &c. * Or fhall we depend on du- bious etymology, and adopt the fyftems of Bochart, Heydegger, Berofus Annius Viterbeaiis, &c. Can it be proved that countries have always been named ^om dhiefs, princes and dukes, in preference to the .ikiiation, features, or produce of the foil ? No— the contrary apf>ears in ten thoufand inftances. What ihen is to be our guide ? The fureft, is the language, law8« religion and cuftoms of the people, compared with tbdfeof other nations; ^^le langue d'une nation," fays Fourmont, '^ eft tojours le plus reconnoiflable de fes monumens ; par elle on apprend fes anti- ^«itez5 on decouvre fon arigine.*'
It is by this never failing touchftone, that our 'great and impartial antiquary Lhwyd, takes upon him to declare, that the antient Scots of Inlandy were diftind from the Britons of th^ fame kingdom ; and that one may obferve in Cornwall, from the names of places, that anotlier people once po{&(Ied that country ; as one may from the names of places in fome parts of Wales, gather, that the Irijh nation once inhabited there, particularly in Brecknockihire and Caermarthenfhire f .
By ^ihe fame guide, I judge that the antient hiftory of Ireland, is grounded on faft, that they are the
* Delphi PhxniciflaQtes.
t Letter to Mr. Rowland, Idona Antiq. p. 342, 537.
immediate
PREFACE. V
immediate defcendants of the Pelafgi, and oS the Tyrrheni, the defcendants of Atys or Atac, fon of Cotys, fon of Meon, the firft king of Lydia and Phrygia ; but whence the name of Atac ? from -whom do the Irifh call themfelves Atach-tttath ? it bears the fame meaning as Peni, and both Atac and Peni in the Chaldaean language imply exiles, wan- derers, Phoenicians. — Aiteac in Iri(h alfo means a giant, a ruftick perfon, agriculture, (whence Attica) and likewife a firft born fon. Diodorus tells us from Sanchon. that Ofiris left the care of tillage in Attica to Triptolemus, which in the Irifli means no more than a tiller of the ground, i. e. Treabh-talamh ; and Tarcon who headed the Pelafgi when driven by the Helenifts from Maeonia, I apprehend was fo called from p'W Tarcon, a Hebrew word, fignifying an exile. See Plantavit's Lexicon Synon. Heb. and Chald. — ^In Kkc manner Diodorus, after he has given a long detail of the genealogy of Ceres, fays it is only an allegory or figurative narration, for that it only alludes to the times, when bread corn and thofe fruits of the earth that are called by the fanie name with the goddefs, were imported into Athens. Now this is the deity the Phoenicians worfhipped at Bedi- Car, and is the Irifli Ceara or Kara, of which her-c- after.
SECTION n.
• The Oriental writers that have mentioned the Britannic ifl^nds, are many. Rab. Ab. Cbaija, in his Sphaera mundi. Abarbanel, not only calls Ire-
B 3 land
VI
PREFACE.
\}
land Little Britain •, but fays, that the children of Mefk and Tubal inhabited both iflands : Meik was a name they gave to the Etrufcans, and Tubal in- habited Spain, from both which places the Irifh claim colonies. Abarbanel is known to be well verfed in antient Oriental hiftories ; he fays, that the chil- dren of Mefle and Tubal went to dwell on the the banks of the Euphrates, but foon removed from thence, and came at length to the Great Wejiern IJlands. From hence may be derived the name Iber or Hiber, in like manner as the children of Abraham, from palling over the Euphrates, were called Hebrews ; and it is remarkable, that if the Irifh Seaimachies have impofed upon us, in the date when their anceftors took the name of Hiber, they have done it with great art and cunning, making it coirefpond with that of the Hebrews.
Aben Ezzra fays, (in Obadiah,) that when Jofhua took polfeilion of Canaan, moft of the inhabitants retired to Greece, Italy, Gaul, and to fome weilern iflands.
Sedor Olem mentions an old cuftom prevailing amongfl the Jews of the fecond temple, of celebra- ting a great feaft on the 1 5th and 1 6th days of Nifan, for the expullion of the Magogian Scythians from Beth-fan, by Maccabeus ; for, fays he, they were fo very powerful, that neither Jofliua, David or Solomon, could ever extirpate them, upon which, the Seytho- polians retired to Greece, and fome very far diflant wejlem countries^ with whom they always kept up a
♦ Hence Ptolemy calls it Little Britain: Strabo, lib. i. p. no. Bntifh lerna and his anticot Abndger, explains it by the Britons inhaKiting lerua.
cor-
PREFACE. vii
correfpondence *. Joannes de Fordun, certainly hints at this part of the Scythian hiftory, where he fays, " ex variis quippe veterum fcriptis cronogra- phorum intelligitur, quod gentes antiquiflimae natio Scotorum, a Grscis & ^gyptiorum reliquis, caeteris mari rubro cum rege fubmertis, primum cseperat exordium f."
Cumberland obferves, that he believes that Lucian de dea Syria, points out Noah by the name of Deucalion Scytha : that the name of Japhet is clearly difcernible in the Greek 'idmrn, and the Latin Ja- petus, as Ham or Cham's name is in Hanunon or Chemia the old name of Egypt, the land of Ham ; and it falleth out well, fays he, that Paufanias in his Corinthiaca informs us, that the Phliaiians affirm, that Arans among them was contemporary with Prometheus the fon of Japetus, and three ages (or one hundred years at leaft) elder than Pelafgus, the fon of Areas, or than 'Avr•;c^F^ at Athens. And Paufaniaus moreover obferves, that the Philafians had a very holy temple, in which there .was no image^ either openly to be feen, or kept in fecret. So, the learned Dr. Baugmarten, (after proving that He- rodotus miftook every thing he had heard and faw of the Scythians) adds,. '^ all we know of the real religion of the Scythians, . terminates in the worflup of the invifible deity : tbey admitted of no images, but, like the Magi, only made ufe of fymbols : this is inconteftible from their punifliing with death, ' without refpeft of perfons, any one who was con- victed of image worlhip. They certainly brought
♦ Sec Preface to No. XII.
f Selden Jud. dex Script. Anglic.
three
viii PREFACE.
three new divipities from Afta, and neither wor^
(hipped them in images, nor dedicated to them
temples, groves, or any thing elfe. And all the ce^
remonies pertaining to the worfhip of thefe three
deities, may be comprehended in the word HAMAN,
iigniiying no more than a ccmfecration or religious
ufage *."
All
* Baugmarten's Remarks on the Enrrlifli Univ. Hi ft. vol. u. p. 121. From this mann many of our great moantains receive their name. Take an old IHifa • fabl« ftill in every one's mouth of SliaUi-na-Mann mountaio* They Fay it wai firft tohahitcd by foreignen, who came from very diflant countries ; that they were of both fexei, and taught the Irifh the art of G Shirisy qr Ourisy that iB» the management of flax and hemp, of cattle, and of tillage;— They all wore herns according to their dignity ; the chief had five horns* The word Ouris, now means a meeting of women and giH# it one .houfc or bam, to card a certain quantity of wool, or to fpia a quantity of flak, tind fometimes there arc a hundred together. Wherever there is an Ouris, the Mann come invifible and aflift. When a Seiferac or ploughing, by joint ftock of horfcs, is going forward, the Mann then affifls in fhape of invifible horfes i — but (add the monks) if the OuHs is beguB on a Saturday tii^fc after twelve o'clock* mr purfned on the Sabbath, the Mann moft afluredly will break the whcelk, and fpoil the crop. Compare this ftory with Cumberland's explanation of Sanconiatho, and we (hall find it to be his Meon or Ofiris, who invented weaving and ploughing, and Ofiris m the Chaldee was written Siran or Ciran, an bid Irifti name for a plough. (See Ben Uzzicls Targum.) and in Irifti Ois-aireac «r Oifarac is a chief ploughman | and man in Heb. is a plmtgl, (Aratrum) and hharajh In Hebrew, is alfo to piough, a word not far diftant from our Onris, but this word having no root in the Irifti, may be wi^tten O-Shiris, the S being eclipfcd, forms Ohiris ; or as the vulgar pront^uncc it, Ouris. The Eg^-ptian god Ofiris, fays Halleway, means, *« the Giver of good things," and is derived from the Hebrew ttafhar, to be rich. Bifliop
Cumberland
PREFACE. IK
All this peffediy correfponds xtath the dodrine of •the Hibernian Druids ; the diree Aiiatick divinities^ I believe^ were Dagh^ Anu and Ceara, by which they fignified certain conftellations that infliienced the Earthy and all was comfnided in Mann, by which I have always underftood they meant the inviAbk God, the ail healing and alt faving power, ndiofe prefence m theit Oracles, was named Lcgb^ or die ^therial fpiritual fire.
*' Although you may truly lay with OrigM, that before our Saviour's time, Britain adcnowledged not one true Oed^ yet it came as near to what they Should have done, or rather nearer, dsan moft dF others, either Greek or Roman, as by -nations ia Csefar, Strabo, Lucan and the like, dffcooritng of diem, you may be fatisfied- For although Apollo^ Mars, Mercury, were w6riiipped among the vulgar Gauls, yet it appears, that the Druids invocation, was to One all healing on all savino power/' (Selden on Drayton^s Pblyolhion.) •
^^ And. k)ng before Csdar's time, Abaris, (about ,the begilming of the Olyti^iads) an HypeiijoreaAy' is recorded for Belus's Prieft (or Apollo), among the utmoft Scytluans, being further removed from -Hellenifm than wrr JSrifij/fc.'* (Maldiue Vit. Pytha- goree. Seldon on Drayton.)
This Abaris Ive have proved from good authority, iwas an Hibernian Druid* (See No^ i a; Preface.)
Cumberland fets thefe names in a very dear lij^hty he (ayf* ** When the Egyptians defigned to honour Ofiris^ vngder the name of Meon,*they meant to fignify the perfon or deity that gave them habitations, eftates, refuge, and all the benefits of a colony : whence tht IrUh word co*mhanim,'to dwell together.
The
.1
aril PREFACE.
thapnians, they certainly had a right to quarrel with the Pclafgians for attempting a fettleitient in them. And we fhall hereafter find the inhabitants of Ire- land applying to the Pelafgi to relieve them of the Carthaginian yoke of flavery.
SECTION ffl-
«
The lovers of Irifh antiquity will not think this account oi the Pelafgi too prolix — the ancient hif- tory of this country, though blended with the fables of the Bards^ correfpqnds with the moft part of the hiitory of the PelafgL
In the- preface to my lafl number, I fhcwed the miftake of Keating and the bards he had copied, in making the Firbolg atid Tuath Dadanann, colonies. They were only the nfuacs of the different orders of priefts, that arrived with the colonies. I take the firfl to be the more antient order.
In a very antient MSS. of the Seabright coUeftion, is the following pailage. Tangatar Fombaraigh (Afirigh) go h Eirinn, agus do chuirfeat d«ior-cios uirre. i . da trian Itha, bleachta, cloine, agus uinge dhor on tfroin no ceann on chionn amac. Tanaig Luch4amhfada o Chrotun na cuan, i. Eamoin ablach, a tir Tairge, dfhiirtacht Eirinn, agus ma- craith fidhe Tuatha Dadanann maile fria, agus do dhealbhdaois Tuath Dadanann clocaha agus crain
na talamhan a reachtaibh daoinedh, S^c. &c. * that
•
* TbU MS8. has the name of Ed. Lhwydi in the firft; page. Liber Ed. Luidij ex dono R. CI. V. Hen. Aldridge. S. T. P.
& -^Edis
PREFACE. xiu
is. The African fea commanders, came to Ireland^ and impofed very heavy taxes upon the inhabitants, viz. two thirds of the produce of the land, of their kine, and of their children (for flavesy, and more- over one ounce of gold annually on every nofe or head. But Leuco— longimanus (long handed) ar- rived to the fupport of the Irifli ; • he came from the harbour of Croton, or iEmonia felix, in the country of Tarcon ; and with him came certsdn youthful Sorcerers, called Tuatha Dadanann, who had the power of metamorphafing flones and trees into fighting men, &c. &c.
I fhall not take up my readers time in comparing the fable of the latter part of this narration with that of the antient Greeks, but proceed to the hifto- rical part.
Etrufcorum Rex Tarcon, Graecus ex Maeonia,
primo praefcftus Tyrrheni tantum, mox ipfe rex
faftus ; fratre Tyrrheni vel filius, civitates 12
ftruxit. nomen fiium Tarquiniis indidit. Crotonoe
habitavit. (Dempfter, Gori, &c. de Etruria Re- gali.)
Leftos Caere viros, leftos Crotona fuperbi Tarcontis domus (Sil. Ital. 1. 8.)
i( Mdis Chrifti D«cani. N. B. the contradion Tairgc, in the Irifhy has been convetted by Keating to Tairgire, and then it reads, the land of promlfe, inftead of the country of Tarcon» — this was an excellent hobby-horfe for him to amble on.
* Eirinn, in the original, it was called Eire, Eiris, and Eirino^ aUnong ofher poetical names. And this is the Iris of Diodorut Stculy which he fays was inhabited by Britons. (Lib. 5. page J09) — This is a ilrong confirmation of Ireland being known by the name of Brhannia and Eire, at the lame time.
See
ZIV
PREFACE.
Sec alfo Strabo Amas, I. 5. p. 151. -Sncas Gal- Jettis. Hift. Univ. 1. 4. Cato de originibus, &c.
The countxy about Croton was called Maeoni or ^monia : there was alfo the city of Eamonia, the Vica Maeoni and the planum Maeoni in Etruria : the bft retains the name of la Pianura di Meana. Now a& there was Eamonia in the inland parts, and Eamonia on the fea caft, in which flood Croton, our Irifli hiftorian moft properly diftinguiflies Cro- ton, to be the maritime Croton or Maeonia ; Croton na cuan. i. e. of the harbours.
Dionyifius Hal. mentions the change of name into Cothornia. Tempus, quo Pclafgorum res caepenint deficere, incidit in alteram ferme ante bellum Trojanum aetatem ; duraverunt tamen etiam pene ultra ejus belli tempora : donee contrafti funt in gentem minimam, nam praeter Crotonem, Um- briae civitatem inclytam, be fi quod aliud aborigines tenuerunt domicilium, intericrunt reliqua Pclafgo- rum opida. Croton vero, quum diu retinuiffet ve- terem Rei-publicae formam : baud multo ante nof- tram aetatem, & civeis mutavit & nomen. Cothor- nia vocitata & fad:a Romanorum Colonia. *
Herodotus fays, they fpoke a different language from the Greeks — qua lingua Pelafgi fint ufi, pro certo adfirmare non poffum, fed ex conjeftura licet dicere, ejus linguae fuifle, cujus funt hodie ii ex Pclafgis, qui fupra Tyrrhenes Crotonem urbem in- colunt, & olim finitimi erant iis, quos nunc Dores ▼ocant : tum videlicet, quum cam, quam nunc Thefialiotin regionem adpellant, incolebant ; item
* The Cfuthcni of Ulfter were named Cctherni. (Colgan.)
cujus.
PREFACE- xf
cujus funt ii quoque Pelafgi qui Placiam atque Scylacen condidenmt apud Hellefpontum ; & Athe^* nienfium contubernales fuerunt. Ex his, inquam, conje^ure fada, dicere licet, Pelafgos olim barbar^ fuiile loquutos ; nam &: Crotoniatas (imul & Pla- ciani lingua quidcm diflident a fuis quique vicinis, at inter fe conveniunt, quo argumento fatis aflen- dunt, fe earn ipfam fermonis formam confervaliie, quam habcbannt, quum in eas regiones migrarunt.
By the fame force of argument, I can prove the Pelafgi were here ; for all the antient Etrufcan or Pelafgian infcriptions, produced in Gori and Demp* (lu« can be well explained in the Irifh language, as Ihall be fhewn in another place ; but a ftronger evi- dence of the arrival of this colony cannot be given, than the name of iEmonia or Eamania, that was given to the capital and royal refidence in Ulfter, Cruteni, to the country and people of Dalreida; Crutenorum & Vetiorum regio in U-Lidia vel Ul- tonia, (Colgan) ^monia to Inch Colum Kill, on the coaft of Scotland, and of ^monia, Eubonea and Eubossa to the Ifle of Man ; and I believe the fa- mous Eiremon or Heremon, from whom the Irifh ^ claim defcent, fignifies an ^monian chief; becaufe in all the antient MSS. I find the name written Eiream- hoin, feemingly compounded of Er, great, noble, a chief; and Eamoin, of Eamonia or ^monia; I think the name points out the origin of the Pelaf- gian Irifh from Eamonia, or as they write the name Eamania ; or can we go aftray in the name of thofe Dodonian Priefls, that accompanied the colony, when we recoiled that Thatain Etrufcan, and t<tsn Thata in Phoenician, fignifies forcery, magic. *
I cannot *
xvi PREFACE.
I cannot here pafs over two words peculiar to Ae Irifh in diis weftem part of the globe, iignifying afoa or defcendant of the £une ftock, and to this day prefixed to fumames of Families^. I mean MAC and O9 both of oriental origin. In the Irifti text, al tfce beginning of this le£Hon we have macraithj k e. youthful males. This word occurs in Gendis, chap. xlix. vier. 5. theEnglifli verfion has it tranf- lated babitatiam ; Simon and Levi are brethren, in- firamen/ts of cruelty are in their habitations. Mon- tanus, dubious of the word, iofertl the Hebrew in the Latin text, in Italicks, thus, ^^ arma iniquitatis torum macbara.** Rabbi Meir who lived in the time of the fecond temple, gives another turn to the whole verfe. *' By the bkflmg of Jacob upon Simon and Levi, the weapoM of vengeance are their tSHT^'i'l^DD (*nachirothim) children/* " That is,'* feys he, ^ they love weapons as their children : and hence,** adds be, " y^ mak and y^D ^WLcy^" is a £bn, and the words are ufed by the inhabitants of the lea cOTifts, and in the cities on thofe coafts.'* ' I fup* pofe tihe Rabbi meant Pho&nricia, OBrien fays, the Iriih writie O, or U A, to imply a ion. The broad vowels being ufed promifcuoufly, and dipthongs and trip- thosigs in Irifli, having the found of monofyUables only, ithey might write ou, ua, or oua, but O is un- doubtedly moft prefer. O im^^lies the Son in ex- cdicnce ; Mac, a defc^ndant, according t-e OBrien ; i believe he is right, for macar, in Chaldee is fyondere. The learned Abbe Renaudot, fays, that the Egyptian name OSiris, is formed of Chiri or Chirfe, that is the SUN, and O, (filins,) Son, tiiere-
fore
PREFACE. xvii
fore OCHIRIS or OSIRIS, is le Jils defokllpar ex^ cellencey the Ton of the Sun. And here occurs ano- ther old Irifli word Chris and Chreafan, i. e. holy, facred. Crifean, i. e. Sagart, (Vet. Glofs.) i. e. Crifean is the fame as Sagart, a Prieft^ I take this name to have been given to the Druid in his holy office of facriiicing to the fun ; it has alfo a great affinity to Kreejhno^ the name of a Hindoo deity. (See Halhead's grammar of the Bengal Language^ page 20.) And according to Gori, Cerus in the Etrufcan Language, iignifies facred : Did we ever hear of a Mac-Morgan or an OGriffith ? Was O, or Mac, a common name with the Gauls or Welfli Britons? How came the Erfe and Irifli by thefe oriental appellations? or by the Egyptian liis the moon, in Irifli Eas, and Eafconn the full moon.
SECTION IV.
The next colony recorded in the Irifli hiftory, are faid to be the Cruiti, or Cruitni or Peadi. " As a bhfhlathamhnas Eiremoin tangadur Cruitnith no Peafli, fluagh do thriall on Tracia go Eirinn,'* — i. e. in the reign of Eremon, the Cruiti or Cruitni or Peafti, migrated from Thrace to Ireland, — ^to which Keating adds, " according to the Pfalter of Cafliel, written by Cormac, the reafon of this migration, was, that Polycornus the tyrant and king of Thrace, refolved to feize upon the only daughter of Gud, a chief of the Peadi. Herodotus places the Padyae and Crithoti in Thracia Cherfonefliis. Thrace, Samos and Crete, had been peopled by Phoenicians, Pelaf- gians and Etrufcans j Polycrates the tyrant, (prr- Vox. IV. No. XIII. C bably
xviii PREFACE.
bably tniftaken by Cormac for Polycornus) drove the Samarians to Crete, and purfued them from thence to different places, and at length fays Eiife-^ bius, tliey retired to Italy.
The Greeks were chiefly indebted to the Thra- cia»s for the pdiite arts that flouriflied among them. Orpheus^ Linus, Mufsexts, Hiamyris and Eumolpus^ all Thracians, were the firft, as Euftathius informs us, who charmed the inhabitants of Greece with t^ir elocjoence and #nek)dy, and perfuaded them to exchange their frercenefs for a fociable tifjs and peaceful msomers ; Aay, great part of Greece was antiently peopled by Thracians* Tereias, a Thracian, governed at Daulis in Phocis ; from thence a body of Hiracians ' pafied over to Eubsa, and poflefled themfdres of that Ifland. Of the iame nation were the Aones, Tembices, and Hyanthians, who made themfelves mafters of Baeotia ; in fine, gi^at part of Attica itfelf, was inhabited by Thracians. But tho* the Greeks knew they were fo chiefly indebted to them both for the peopling and polifliing of their country, they have with the utmoft ingratitude and injullice, ftyled tliem Bart>arians. fi»ffi»ff a word that of iginally only implied foreigners, fitmi the Phaenician *)^^ bar, and IriUi bata, wandering, of another nation, dehors. *
Tliefe
* Th^re are many pkces hi Irelaod apparently iiaiHed by thk Thracian CaloDy» after others in antictit Thrace, fiicli are,
Thrace, Ireknd.
Antrium, Antrim, the Capital of the Peadi.
Geloni, Gailean.
Lygo«, LeighiB.
Athyras,
PREFACE.
XIX
J
Thefe Pcafti or Paftyae, are not the Pifti or woad painted Britons, (theWeUh) defcribcd by Caefar, TTiey are diftinguifhed by the Scots by the name of Pea£li, a word that founds exadly the fame as Pa6ttyae. TTie Thracians were remarkable for branding their foreheads and arms, but never paint- ed their bodies. Tracam^ in Irilh, is to brand with a hot iron, and probably was the origin of the name, and not from Thiras, as Bochart after Jofephus ima- gines ; and perhaps Thirax, mentioned Gen. x. 1. to be the youngeft fon of Japhet, was fo called from inftituting the cuftom of branding.-— -
— Membraque qui ferro gaudet pimdfle, Gelonus.
Says Claudian. And,
Inde Caledonio velata Britannia monftro
Ferro pifta genas ; ■ ■
The cuftom of fealing or branding was very anti- ent. God from the beginning, gave his people
|
Athyrav, Riv. |
Athir. |
|
Ufaubma, |
Uifcedatta, (OB. diAionafy). |
|
iElut |
Ely, Eili. |
|
Machleia, Riv. |
Machlin. |
|
Cznica, |
Canic. ' |
|
Samaica, |
Samac, about Lough Erne. |
|
Zcrvay |
Scarva. |
|
Lyiimacliia» |
Ufmacy Lifmnc. |
|
Gaiiot, |
CftDlS, |
|
SyractUa, |
SaOTciU, SarkeU. |
I
And a hundred others, may be drawn from the feme fountain kead,— and in other parts, the names of many places of antient E^ruria are to be found.
C 2 typical
XX PREFACE.
typical things and aftions, which he c^XXtdiJigns ; and fome facraments which appear to have been termed feals and fignets. St. Paul calls the circum- cifion of Abraham, z/eal of righteoufnefs, (Rom. iv. II.) In the fame epiftle he exhorts,—" Grieve not the holy fpirit of God, whereby ye are fealed unto the day of redemption." Ifai. xlix. i6» *' Behold I have graven thee upon the palms of my hands.'* Exod. xiii. 9. " And it ihall be for z^gn unto thee upon thine hand, and for a memorial be- tween thine eyes.*' But, befides thcfe public or ecclefiaftical feals, each man (or nation) had his pri- vate feal for a counterparty or correfpondent Hiero- glyphic to the faid public ones ; to teftify for him, in all his public arts, whofe fervant and fpiritual child he was. This, among -other facred ufages and rites, the fir ft apoftates to heathenifm carried oflF with them, perverting and abufing the fame, to the laft degree of infatuation. For, they had not only their figns which were «y«A^1« ig uh i^i5f, images and emblems of their Gods, in their feals, drinking cups, military ftandards, and many other things ; but, they themfelves were ordinarily confecrated to their Gods, by burning or branding fome name, mark, emblem (^ir»f»<mfi6f fignature) or number of their faid Gods, in their own flefli, on their hands, necks, foreheads, and other parts. Thus Ptolemy Philopater, was furnamed raxx^ h^ rl ^ixxa xtmt xarifi^^ah bccaufe he was ftigmatized in his body with ivy leaves, the emblematical mark of Bacchus : The votaries of the Sun were marked with the nu- meral
PREFACE. xxi
meral letters XII. for the number 608, which was the Sun*s number. •
Whence alfo, the bead in the Revelation, is faid to caufe all, both fmall and great, rich and poor, free and bond, to receive a mark in their hand, and in their forehead. So idolaters in general, marked themfelves in their fkin and flefh for the devils vo- taries. To oppofc this abomination, God forbad his people to print any marks in their flefh, (Lev. ix. 27). So in Revelations xiv. 10. *' If any man worfhip the beaft and his image, and receive his mark in his forehead or in his hand, the fame ihall drink of the wine of the wrath of God, and (hall be tormented with fire and brimftone.**
Herodotus and Strabo, having noticed that the Thracians followed this cuftom to excefs, I have ventured my opinion, that they might have been fo called from tracam^ to brand, a word in the antient language, ftill prefcrved in the Irifh; at the fame time I acknowledge, that the Hebrew words trak "^i^, impellere violenter, taruk,fx«/,/^r^(?n expellere,(/^z^« expulfio, ptna & phinahy expellere, ghalal expellere, iuathath^ cxpulfus ; Athak & nathak (in the Chal- dee,) extirpare, expellere, feem more rationally to be the origins of the names given by the Hebrews to the Tracians, Turks, Dacii, Pa^ni or Phoeni, Phoe- nicians, Galli & Gallati ; and probably to our Tuath-Dodonians, and our Attach-tuath and Attac- cotti ; for it is evident from holy writ, that all thefe nations or people, foon after the flood, had drawn the wrath of God upon them, and were told, that
* Halloway's Originals, Phyfical and Theological.
the
xxii PREFACE.
they were to be a wandering and an expelled peo- ple : So were the Saca^ whom I mentioned in my laft No. to be the fame as Scytha*~-Sacas enim vel Scytha3 quod idem eft. (Strabo, Bochart, &c.)
This call.$ to mind a paffage in Epiphanius, in his Epift. ad Acac. & Paul, " from the age of Therah downward, Phaleg and Ragau, removed towards the clime pf Europe, to part of Scythia, and were joined to thofe nations from which the Tbm^ians came/' Bochart,, endeavours to confute this p^^ffage; of Epi* phanius ; I think he has failed. But certainly this gave room to Grotius, Salmafius, and Stillingfleet, to fuppofe that Peleg was the father of the Scythians, who were the firft that . pet^lcd Greece, under the pame of Pelafgoi, and fuch a wandering people might have been fo called with great propriety, as \ fhall hereafter fliew^ both from the oriental ^nd the Iriih languages*
Stillingfieet confirms his opinion, he thinks, by etymology ; I go on the fame uncertain ground. He fiiews the affinity between the Hebrew and an* tient Greek, from the various dialea:s and pronun- ciations of the latter, which in the Doric comes neareft to the eaftern tongues ; and from the re- mainder of thofe tongues, efpecially where the Pelafgians have been, which Bochart thought of Phoenician, but our Author will rather have of He- brew extraflion, I have purfued the fame path, in all my publications on the Irifh language, antiqui- ties, &c- And fo great an affinity has the old Irilh with the Hebrew, that my friend and correfpondent, J, J. Heideck, Profeffor of Oriental languages,
will
PREFACE. wiu
will not be perfuaded, but that t JewUh colo&y poce fettled in Ireland.
The Scythians were certainly the defcendants of llbgQg^ not of Phaleg. They mixed with the
of Beth-San, Tyre and Sidon. They
conquered Aflyria, and when they loA that crown^ feme remained in Cs^o^yria, where they were again joined by the Hiaeniciam. They paffed with them, from thence to Crete : And it haa been the opinion of many learned men, that the Phxniciana were originally from Crete. Fortunatus Scacchos, a very learned man, in his Arcanum, S. & Myro» thee. chap. 17. Corcthos & Phetetheoe non IfraeUtas, fed alienigenas fuiffe.—- iHicGtmces Cretenfmm co« lonos, eo nomine figniiicari alii arbitrantur, cujus fententiae eft Auenor in eadem radice iy\y Pbas- nices ab Creta originem traxifle, Cretenfmrnve coloaiam Phceniciam extitiffe, dicunt aliqui fobodo- ran pofle, ex Pbaenico porto, quern infulae Cretae fidicripfiffe ferunt Ptolemseum in ora auftrali.
Facit etiam ad hoc probandum illud Sophen* 2Veh. qpii habitas funieulum maris gent perditorum, i. e. OmS ^i ghui or ghoi Cerethim, i. e. gens Cere^ thim.-<—*«<-^ Again in Ezech. ch. 25. Ecce ego exten- dam manum meam fuper Palaeftinos, & mterficiam inter&fbores, & perdam reliquias maritimas regionis ; the Hebrew text reads thus, Ecce ego extendam manum meam fuper Philifthvim, & fuccidere feciam Cerethos, And in this place Aquila, Theodotius and Symacchus, have retained the word Ceretbem KiffdMA^, but fome Greek copies have ]c^r«f, Gretas.
This probably led Tacitus into the miftake of de- riting the Jews from Crete. Judseos Creta infula
profugos.
xxiv PREFACE.
profugos, noviflima Libyae infedifie memoraiit. (L. 5. Hift.)
The Hebrew •li ghoi, fignifies a detefted people. Homo gentilis. Sic Judaei quem vis vocant, qui non eft de populo Ifrael, maxime tamen Chriftianis hoc nomen dedere. Nam Turcas appellant lifmeelim, five Ifmaelitas. Etiam unum hominem nomlnant ghii contra verum linguae ufum, & naturam voca- buli ; (Buxtorf Lex. Ghald.) In like manner, the Irifh call the Saxons Guith-ban ; the white detefted people ; and Guith-ban, became at length the name of England : (Shaw's Irifli Did.) but their own people and fellow countrymen, the Scots of Britain, they named Eilbonnac, from Eile a tribe, bonn good, and aice race ; and thus I believe Eilban foon became the name of England, inftead of Guidhban, whence Albania. This I am induced to think the origin of the word, becaufe I obferve in the Irifh MSS. the Scots feated in Britain are named Albanac, and in truth, it is the name the Highlanders or Erie diftini- guifh themfelves by at this day ; whereas by Eiris, or Eirinn, and Eirinnach, they mean the owners of the foil.
Bifhop Cumberland derives the word Palaeftinus, from lySfi pelas or plas, which he obferves from Caftle's Heptaglot. fignifies to befmear with duft and afhes : and therefore the proper origin of Peleus at the mouth of the Nile ; but he allows, that in the Samaritan or Ethiopic, the fame word B^Sfl imports peregrinatio, migratio de loco in locum. So likewife Pleas, Phlcas or Fleas, in the antient Pelafgian-Irifh, fignifies to wander, to which add gboi, a people or pation, it forms Pelafgoi, the wandering people j the
very
PREFACE.
yery idea by which the Greeks have exprefled that people, quali Pelafgoi, cranes, wanderers. The Irifli ftill retain the word in pUeafgac or fleafgach, a wanderer, (boiler, having no fettled home, and with the modem Irifli, it im|^es a piper, fidler, or harper, ftrolling from town to town, or from houfe to houfe*
It is of no great importance, if this be the proper etymology of the Pelafgi or not ; certain it is, that the Irifli do preferve the remembrance of Plafg or Pelafgus, in their genealogies. In the Reim-rioghhre, or royal calendars, in the fuppofed colony of theTuath- Dadananns, they make Pleft or Paleft, the fifth ge- neration from Noah, and Pelafg or Halg, the fif- teenth ; and five generations from him, they place Breas, who, it is faid led die colony to Ireland.
As I think it is evident, that Phoenician, Pelafgian and Etnifcan colonies, did fettle in Britannia magna and Britannia parva, or England and Ireland, I am naturally led to feek the etymology of the name Britannia, in the Irifli language. Setting afideGeofiry's idle ftory of the Trojan Brutus, we will fliew what others have faid of this name. And firft, that great etymological luminary, Bochart ; he derives it from the Phcenician barat ager, and anak ftannum, i. e. the field of tin ; brot in the Iriih, means the borders of a country, from whence by tranfpofition of letters, the French border^ and Englifh border. I think Bochart was mifled by Strabo and Ptolemy, who write it fi^^Titmi (Brcttanica) which is certainly an adje&ive, and is dcfedive in fcnfe without ri^^ (an ifland) joined to it.
Secondly, Camden, he is certainly right in the termination «?<« (tania) which in Hebrew, Syriac,
Irifli,
xxvi F R E F A C £•
Irift, ^okA aU Oriental lai^uag^, fignifies a couDtrj or region ; bi^t he is a$ mu(;b ^ a lofs what to make of the ikil part of the word MV, as I am of the latter part taniuke, iiniel$ I derive it from tiiuxn, to fufe, tx> melt, which is certainly the root of the English word tin»
England \pas called Luigria^ by the lri(b^ and by the Wclfb corrupted into Lloyger ; it was fo called, lays Lewis, before the year of Chrift 586 j Ihortly after which time, Lecefter, the chief city of the Mercians, was called Leogera ; and when they became Chriftians, their faiihops were called Prselijde^ htO" gerenfes. (Antient Hift, of Britain, p. agJ}
It h allowed by all biftorians that thefe two iflands were vifited by the Fhcenicians and Carthaginians;, for the lead, tin and c(^>per, with which they abomidedf In Iriib krut and hug fignify lead ; a^n and tan^ and Wa a country, hence Brutaoa, Bruttan ' and Luigria, do all imply the country of lead and tin ; and fo much for Geofiry'a Laegrus the fon cf Brutus« Brut in Iriih, fignifies alfo pitch, tar, or whatever is readily fufed, or afted on by Ar^/, i.. e. fire; whence I believe the Hebrew Tf^SS prut, lead, or any bafe metaU
But fay the opponents of Irifli hiftory, there is no^ foundation in the annals of the Phoenicians or Car- thaginians, that they did fail to Ireland or England ; that remark ia eafily anfwered,, Nor are we without authority that they did come here. Gorijonldes in his book de Hannibale, 1. 3. ch. 15, fays, that Han- nibal conquered the Britains, who dwell in the ocean fea, p'U^^pW^ D^OCn^n n*3t3n> We have no fuch conqueft recorded in the hiftory of Magna Britannia^,
but
PREFACE. «vu
but as I have Ibewn, more thw once, the hiftory of Ireland or Parva Brittannia, declares they did conquer this country, impofed grievous taxes on the inhabit* ants, vtrho vrere relieved by their old friends and allies the Pelafgians or Etrufcans, from Crotom
Thefe iflands ware kno\m to the Cardiaginians, Greeks and Arabs, by the name of the fortunate iflands* They were the Elyfian fields of the Arabs and of the Greeks. Selden has wiittcn much to the purpofe on this fubjeft, in his X. Scriptor. Anglic. And Ifaac Tzetzes pofitively declares, " in oceano infula ilia Brittania, inter Brittaniam illam qus fita eft in occidente & Thylcn quae ad orientem magis
vergit." « Id eft," fays Selden, ^« Britannia
magna feu Albion quam fie collocat ille inter Bri- tanniam alteram feu parvam, quae Hibernia eft & Thulen, de cujus fitu baud parum difcrepant cho- rographi tum veteres turn recentiores ; Uluc aiunt (adds Tzetzes) etiam mortuorum animas trap/wbi^ ad bunc modum fcribentes ;" to which Selden replies, " et fane Tzetes hofce intelligo, in litore Britanniae magnac volunt reperiri navigia ilia animabus onufta, indeque lUa cum remigibus, impetu unico, ad HIBERNIAM adpelli, tunc SCOTIAM itidem vocitatam*
Juftus Lipfius is another authority. He quotes the following paflage from Ariftotle. " In mari extra Herculis coluranas, infulam defertam inventam fuifle, filva nemorofam, fluviis navigabilem, fruftibus uberem, multorum dierum navigatione diftantem, in quam crebra Carthaginienfes commearint, & multi fedes etiam fixerunt ; fed veritos primores, ne uimis loci illius opes convalefcerent, & Carthaginis labe- rentur, edido cavifTe & poena capitis fanxilTe, nequis
eo
xxvin
PREFACE.
CO navigafle deinccps vellet." (Ariftot. in Admiran- dis.) To which Lipfius obferves, ** quod vcrum cenfeo de una aliqua novarum infularum : quia multos dies navigatione impendit : neque probabile igitur Canarias, aut alias vicinas, fuiffe. Nofter Seneca (nam illc Tragedias Medeae certo auftor eft) de iis ipfis pracdixiffe vidctur, pueris jam decantatum
venient anms
Saecula feris, quibus Oceanus Vincula rerum laxet, & ingens Pateat tellus, Tiphyfque novos Deteget orbes, nee fit terris Ultima Thule.
Qnod ille tamen proprie de Britannicis infulis in- tellexit, & in Claudii gratiam fcripfit, (J. Lipfius, V. iv. p. 594.)
To this let us add the remarks of Culverius. " Gefta haec anno xxi, poft alteram illam Etrufcorum contra Cumanos expeditionem, quam fiipra memo- ravimus. Ac tanta quum foret eorum terra ;narique potentia, longinquas etiam navigationes extra Colum- nas Herculis in mare Oceanum aliquando inftitu- erunt. Diodorus 1. 5. Hac igitur ratione Phoenices, inveftigando ultra Columnas oram, quum Africae litora legerent ; ingentibus ventorum procellis ad longinquos in Oceano traftus fimt abrepti. Ac per multos dies vi tempeftatis jaftati, tandem ^dpradi&am infulam adpulerunt, naturamque ejus ac felicitatem, a fe perfpedam, in aliorum deinde notitiam perdux- erunt. Ideo Tyrrheni quoque, quum maris imperio potirentur, cohniam eo deftinarunt, fed Carthagini-
enfes
PREFACE. xxlx
enfes ilU$ obftiterunt. Sed quam magnum atque celebre per omnem ilium terrarum orbem, qui in Europam, Aiiam & Africam diftinguitur fuerit Tyr- rhenorum nomen, oftendere voluit Ariftide$. (Clu- verius, Ital. p. 445. )
SECTION V.
The remarkable piety, morality and philofophy of the Hibernian Druids, added to the early eftablifli- ment of the Orgia of the Cabiri in this ifland, caufed it to be named In/ula Sanda ; and the fecundity of its foil, and temperature of the climate, gave it the name of the bleffed and fortunate ifland. In treating of the Cabiri, I fliall have frequent occafion to mention Sanchoniatho ; and I mud here premife, that I believe the Greek tranilation by Philo. BibL is a mere for- gery, worked up with Greek ideas on a Phoenician allegory, mifunderftood and interlopated by Philo, in every page. This I venture to fay from com- paring the Irifli hiftory of the Cabiri, with the Phoe- nician, for example, why ihould QuramiSy the Hea- vens, marry his fifter Ge the Earth, and bring forth, ift, Ilus, who is called Cronus ; 2d, Betylus ; 3d, ^
Dagon, who is Siton, or the god of corn ; and 4th, Atlas ; becaufe in the Irifh ftory, Aoran the plough- man marries Ge, or Ce the Earth, and the firft plowing brings forth Ilus, weeds, ftones, orts ; the fecond Biadhial food, (for fome corn will require but two plowings) but the third produces daghy or deagh^ great corps of wheat, when follows athlusy i. e. ruadh, fallowy to recover for another crop. Cronus does
not
XXX PREFACE-
not fignify Time in this psiflage ; crann is a plough, fear crainn a plough-mam« (See Shaw's Eng. Ir. Did.) In other places Philo has hit upon the proper fenfe ; for Mil and ^ron, (ignify time in Irifh.
Strabo in 1. iv. p. 198, fays, " infulam ^c prope Britanniam in qua Cereri & Proferpinae facta fiunt eodem ritu quo in Samothracia ;** and this he affirms from Artemidorus, vdio wrote under Ptolomaeus Lathyrus, and none of the Helenick Greeks, had then entered Britain, as Samcs has well proved in his Britannia antiqua illuftrata.
TTie information given us by Sanchoniatho, that the Diofcuri and Corybantes made improvements in fliips and veffels, wherewith they pafTed over the fea, (within the two next generations after the flood, accord- ing to Cumberland) will evince us, that thus men might pafs early even into iflands and countries, feparated by fea from each other, which mud needs help to forward the difperfion of mankind into many coun- tries. And accordingly we find the fons of Sydyc called by Sanchoniatho, Samothraces, which imports they got into that ifland, and into Thrace, near ad- joining. For Herodotus fays, the ITiracians were initiated according to the rites of the Cabin, whom he records to have been in Samothracc, and hence to have removed with the Pelafgi into Attica, and thence into other parts of Greece, where Paufanias affures us, that their myfteries were upheld even to his time. Not that Samothrace implies the Thracians of Samos, but the Orgia of the Cabiri.
From the Irifh MSS of the Sebright coUeftion, and from others in my own poflTeffion, I have been able to coUeft much of the Druidical religion* Of the
Cabiri>
PREFACE.
XXXI
Cabiri^ I IhaU now only fpetk. The Aames and explanatjons of chefe Cabin app^r to be all aile- gorxcai, aad to have fignUkd no more than an al* m&fidck of the viciffitudes of the feafobs, cakuiated for the operations of agriculture, from which names certain planei^ and confteUationa were denominated^ and £fti«i hence the origin of the figns of the aodkc* And tbefe we ihail hereafter find run through the Ma^ogi^ line,* viis* the Tartars, Arabs, PerfianS) Turks, MoguUs, Chinefe, Japanefe, &e. &c. and wiH account for that valuable difcotery of Mr. Call, who found the twelve figns of the 2o<Uac painted on tfie cieling of a Pagoda, at Vardape^a, near Cape Comorin in the Eaft Indies, and in the fame manner we reprefent Aem *. Monf. Bailie has, in my t^- nion, proved very clearly that the ChaWee and Egyptian aftronomy, was but the tkbris of the fcience, and that it originated with the Scythians. Does not Ludan place the tranfitdions of moft of his Syrian deities in Scythia ; Why fend Lete or Latona to murder her guefts in Scythia ?
The hiih Cabiri I find mentioned as of both fexes; in Ihort, they appear all inanimate, Aefar, SanA, and Samhan excepted, viz*
Aefar, i. dia i. Logh, i. e. Aefar is god; the Logh, the fpiritual flame. Is not this the tk ^«y7o( xiytt. &Cii of Zeao ? Notanda igitur, & hie y^m vocula qua crebrd in hoc generationis re utuntur, ut Senecae^ " Caufa autem, id eft ratio, materiam format ; in- corporalis ratio, ingentium operum artifex," ingen- tium, totius mundi, ait, incorporalis, quia mens ipfa
* Phflot Tranf. vol. 62, Anno 1772.
Dei
PREFACE.
Dei eft, & animus, ut fie dicam ignis *. This in ihoit, was the bafis of all Stoic philofophy, and by a per- verfion of the original fenfe of the Druids, arofe all the nonfenfical mythology of the latter Egyptians, Phoenicians, Etrufcans and Greeks.
In the laft number I derived the word aefar from eafar the creator. I find it fince written aefar, and in Shaw's Irifli Didionary Aesf hear, which pronoun- ces the fame ; the/ with an hiatus, does not found, and is thrown in by the poets, to divide the fyllables. Dr. Hyde in his religion of the antient Perfians, ex- plains the name Azer, to have fignified Abraham in the Zend^ meaning thereby fire. Et quia Azur eft igni&, ideo fulmen feu fulgur-autem Mohom- medanus interpres hoc etiam efte ex nominibus Dei excelfi. (p. 64.) -(-.
Ain or Aion follows -ffifar, with the following ex- planation :
Ain, I ; Aion, i ; Mac Seathar, i | ; Seatharan, i. e. Ain or Aion, was the fon of God, and called Seatharan.
Sanchoniatho tells us, that n^mriy»^ the firft born, was called AiiJr, from whom proceeded rwU, and this Aion was the firft that gathered the fruits of the earth*
* Juft. Lipfius de Stoicis.
f I take this opportunity of returning thanks to my learned correfpondent Boirimh. I acknowledge his carredion in this word ; if poifible, his letter (hall find room in thia number.
X Samaritan, Sahar, i. e. Deus, Heb. IJOtJ^ Shatai Dominus. Seathar, a name of God, fo called from fcathar, ftrong, in the fame manner that El among the Hebrews was an appellation of God, from the Hebrew El, which fignifies ftrong, powerful. O'Brien s Iriih Lexicon^
Biftiop
PREFACE. xxxili
Bjftiop CmnberlaQd^ to fupport a fyflem, m^kes Protogencs and Ain, tipo mortals, from whom pro- ijLeedisd Qemis and Qenea* SaxKhon* fays no fuch thijig 'y \^ makes Protogonus the iame as Aion, from whom proceeded Qejie:a ; bw, fays the Wfhop, Aioa wa« th^ firft g^tb^er^f of the fruit$ of the earth, amj of tree$, f:on£equently this was £y^, and Protogenu^ Wj8i^ h4^^ & though he acki^owledges that Aion U made mafculine by Philo Biblyus, rir a/^J*, but, fays b^, die transcriber ignprantly coni^dered Aion as an ^pellative, in which notion it is mafculine, and not as he ought to have 4oQe^ as a proper name of a vioman^ m which fe;nfe it muft be feminine* (Re- Qiafks, p. 219.)
In the lalt number, I proved Seathar to be fynonlr Qiaus to Aefar, i. e. God ; now Ain ia the Iriih Cabiri^ is placed m"^ to JEhx^ and is faid to be Mac Seathar^ the fon of God, the Aioa or Aon^ i. e. the firft, the only one ; fxovci whence he was furnamed Satharan. Aion *9 <u!>niieqp^ni:ly is Adgni, axkd he was the firft gatherer of the fruits of the ^arth^ which he found r^ady fowo s and fo wias Seatbarn or Saturn of the Romans^ for wbic|) realpii )he was reprefented with a fcydie in l^s JbliS^^ A«7^^ • ^^ vri ii>oivsj(«r, Hefyc. Pagon isCronvis or Satv* of the Phoe^ians. Cronus liep-e is our Crewn ^d I>3gh, fpf Pagon w.as the god of agriculture, not of .time. JBrUt then wher^ ^11 w^ ^d ^^ Sa^ons^&o tells yo^ plainly, frpjm Aipm pro«ieded Cefn^ feyJPhilo written Geneaj
• *
* Ain, Ao^>.A*on> hpnpurabkj praife- worthy, refpcdlful. Grftsjt Aine, Jaiis. (O'Brien.) Ami fuch was the Irlfli Chead-om, or Hhcad om, the firft man, i. c. Adam.
VdL. IV. ^o; Kfll. D but
XXXIV
PREFACE.
but Gean in Irifli is a woman^ fo called becaufe (he \% agan or geanach, that is, precious, dear, lovely, fair to behold ; and the Arabic verfion would have called her aghanet, immerfed in love, or the eflFefk of loving, and ghunnasj a perfeft beauty, and fuch was Eve ; and from Gean a woman, the Irifh very properly derive in-ghean a daughter ; it is fur- prizing the Greek word yv^i a woman, did not occur to the Bifhop.
Such appears the work of Sanchoniatho to an Irifh fcholar, and when we confider, that in the Irifli language, Seanachith is an antiquary, an hiftorian ; and Seanacha-nathy the art or fcience of an antiquary ; we are almoft inclined to believe Mr. Dodwell, and to reject Sanchoniatho as counterfeit. But furely Philo Byblius, Porphryry and Eufebius were better able to judge than any moderns : and they never called in queftion his being genuine.
Here then is an ingenious Phoenician or Druidical ftory, literally copied from the Holy Scriptures. Blufti then, ye opponents of the Sacred Writings ! ye multipliers of Adams ! ye ftand here correfted by a Phoenician and a Heathen Hibernian Druid.
Ceara, i , ainm do dhias, agus ainm don dagh, agusCeara, i; Maloith, i. e. Ceara (Ceres) is the name of ears of corn, and the name of a plentiful crop, and ceara is a flail.
Ceara to this day is the word ufed by the Irifti, for heating oats in a pot, and placing thein in a hole in the dry earth of the cabin floor,, where they are trampled on till the hull parts from the feed.
Ceara prefided oyer bread, corn and wheat. The Iriih fable gives her a daughter named Ppr-|aibhean;
this
PREFACE. XXXV
this is the Claflic Proferplna ; the propriety of the name is not to be underftood, but in the PhcEnician and the Irifti. Por Hfl is feed, race for planting or propagating ; Saibhean \^SW (avena) is oats, or fmall grain. Ceara, fay the Irifli poets, invented the Cearan or quern, i. e. the hand mill, and the cearran or fickle ; but Porfaibhean, (Proferpina) invented Leite, an excellent food, made of oatmeal, called itirabout^ from leite a ring or circle, or to move in a circle, becaufe it mufl be ftirred about during the operation* Porfaibhean, fay the Iriih fables, eftabliihed an annual folemnity named Luithre or Taithre, that is, the harvefl-home of the oaten-meal, and by the latter name, it is now known to the poor farmers. She invented or difcovered alfo, the flige or large horfe mufcle fhell, to lift up this leite : (he was made a conflellation under the name of Leithre ; thefe ihells ihe made into fcales for weighing the meal, and in this form ihe is reprefented in the zodiac. The Greeks robbed us of this conflellation and called it Litra, which is fynonimoift to Libra. It has been underftood that the conftellation Libra or Litra was a kind of innovation ; that the Greeks were not ac- quainted with any fuch is certain ; yet we find them among the Saggittaries and Capricorns on the old Egyptian remains. (Hill's Aftronom. Dift.)
Porfaibhean is faid to have invented another moft wholefome food of the hulls of oats, named Saibhean, pronounced faivan, and now called fowens j a food well known by that name in the f uburbs of Dublin ; . eaten with white-wine and fugar, it is equil to the beft blamanche.
D 2 . . It
xxxvi PREFACE.
It is very plain that Ceara is the Egyptian Ifis* " J'ai d'abord foup^onnc que c'etoit-la le fymbole que portoit I'lfis Egyptienne aux approches de I'in- ondation, & qu'on lui doiinoit alors le nom de Leto ou Latone, qui eft k nom du lezard ampbibie* Ifi8 prenoit de fon cote le nom de Di-Ane *, Pabon- dance k Ton mettoit en fa main la figure d'une caille, dont le nom fignifie aufi falot, fecarB()e mStC^ flav. les mots Latin faius & falvas en vioinent, ii figniiier aufli cotttumix une caiile. <!^elque£ois on trouve deux caiUes aux pies d'Ifis, poxir fignifier une eaticre ££curite. Abbe Plucbc is fomctimes -very happy in his Egyptian etymologies, and fometknes much egare*
Ceara is called Maloit or maJoid, a flail in common Irifh. I doubt if flie invented l^ inftrument of hufbandry. Mai in the Hebrew is to cut, to bruiie. The Phoenicians had a temple to Car, Beth-Car, I Sam. 7. 1 1. Halloway derives the word from Cor, the cdieftiai revohitions and itB efieds, whidi are the chief and firft fruits in animals and plants.
SlTO Carmd, Spica-plena & pinguis graois afa^mde Tefertur. (Piantavit^ Synon* Lexicon,) this is our ■caor^ a berry, a full grain.
Carmel dicitur quafi ^^'O 13 pnlvinar plenui^ id eft, fignificat plenam granis. Buxtorf. Chald. Lex. Melila^ fpica, a confricando, quafi fricatio •confricatio ; (ibid) here is our frication invented by Ceara, from whence we may conjefture, Maloidy formerly fignified to tread the com, and now it means a flail, ufed for the fame purpofe.
Bates ofbferves, that Carmel in the Bible, fome- times exprefles a field of corn, fometimes green ears;, and fometimes ripe ears, fit to be rubbed in the
hand.
PREFACE,
xxxvu
hand. The green corn, fays he, whiUl in the pulp will neither threih or rub out : and corn in the full ear, juft cut, will rub out, but not threfh. The green com they dried at the fire, or roafted it : and the full ripe grain in the ear, they rubbed out and eat with oiL ~ here are three ways of eating com, in bread, parched, and in grain.
Anu, mathar dias, agus mater deorum ; non mater deorum, acht ro bo maith dinno biathal fi dias, I • £o*anu. Vegetation, of corn gathering into ear, not mother of the Gods, fays the Gloifarift, non mater deorum, but as Ihe provides bread, com, or food, bearing the ear— (he was the eo— (good) — Anu — whence Juno with the Latins. Ana & anu in Iriih, fignify riches, abundance, continuance of fair weather, a drinking cup or horn, a cornucopia ; dear, beloved ; and Ann-oid, a temple or church — Aon, excellent, noble j Anann, a poetical name of Ireland.
Mathar and Abar, in Irifli, are fynonimous words, for xhtfirji caufe^ whence, compounded with jlghas or Achas fignifying, good-luck, felicity, prof- perity, &c. they form Matharaghas & Abarachas, an epithet given by the Druids to the true God, thereby importing the Deity to be, the great firft caufe of all felicity, faith, religion, &c. &c. (See Agh fully explained in Pref. No. lo).
From this Druidical name, is derived that ridicu- lous Greek myftical word ABRAXAS, fo much noted by the Fathers. The word was probably of Egyptian origin, for by the Emperor Hadrian's letter to Servianus, we find the primitive Chriftians in the Eaft, mixed the Gods of the Heathens with
D 3 the
xxvui PREFACE.
the Chriftian Religion, and if they had not miilaken the fenfe of thofe words, there would have been no crime in adopting fo noble an epithet, -^gyptum (fays Hadrian) quam inihi laudabas, Serviane ca- rifiime, totam didici levem, pendulam, &r ad omnia famae momenta volitantem. lUi qui Serapin colunt, Chriftiani funt, & devoti funt Serapi qui fe Chrifti Epifcopus dicunt. (Vopifcus in Vita Sjiturnini Tyran.)
The Gnofticks, Bafilideans and Valentinians, had the Abraxas ; Irenasus, TertuUian and Auguftin, notice the idle fable of the Greeek letters in the word, compofmg the number 365, and that they fuppofed, there were fo many Heavens. But Mi- thras and Abraxis, are fynonimous words for the the Deity, and are to be found on the fame medals, often with the word I A O and A D O N A I, the firft (landing for JEHOVA, the laft is a Phoenician and Irifh word, fignifying Dominus. How then did Mithras make out 365 : indeed, to form Aba- rachas into this number they were obliged to tranf- pofe a letter, and to turn CH into X, and then it was made up in this manner, viz. « i. c 2. % 100. « I. { 60. ct I- <r2oo, which added together make up the number 365. Brafilides eftablifhed his doc- trine in Spain, and there we find the name written Abraffes. The Etrufcans had alfo their Abraxas j he is found on their coins with Serapis, Canubis, &c. Our Hibernian Druids alfo prefixed the word CAD, i. e. Holy to A B R A, and of this, the Gymnofophhifts, are faid to have formed ABRA- CADABRA, and to have made Amulets, as a
charm
PREFACE.
XXXIX
charm againft fevers, to be worn round the neck in this form, viz.
ABRACADABRA
ABRACADABR
ABRACADAB
ABRACADA
ABRACAD
ABRACA
ABRAC ABRA ABR AB A I cannot help thinking this and the number 365, are tricks of the later monks, becaufe, St. Jerom exprefsly fays, that by Abraxas, the Baffilideans meant the Almighty God. Bafilides qui Omnipo- tentem deum portentofo nomine appellat Abraxas, (& eundem fecundum Graecas literas, & annui curfus numerum dicit in folis circulo, contineri, quem ethnici fubeodem numero aliarum literarum vocantMithram.) Father Montfaucon has given fome hundeds of draw- ings from the various medals ftruck with this word Abraxas ; where he is reprefented in every diflorted form, of half man half beaft, the imagination could invent (Antiq. Vol. IV. page 357.) Our Hiber- nian Druids, like their Scythian anceftors,] admitted of no images.
^ ^^4> T1?< An or Aun was the name of an ob- ject of worfhip in Egypt and Canaan ; Abbe Pluche, takes no notice of it. Gen. xli. and 45. it is An, in verfe 5, it is Aun. The word, fays Bates, is ufed for the ftrength and power of God. The
apoftates
xl P tt £ F A C E.
apoftates no doubt, meant by it, the heavens, and the Prophets turn the word upon them, as in Amos, V. ver. 5. S>^ El ihall become ps<, there was a Beth Aun near Beth El, Jofh. vii. ver. 2. Hot 5th, the calves of Beth An* The On or Aun of the Egyptians, was in their more degenerate days, the city of the Sun, if we can truft the Ixx. Ezek. 30, and 17. The 70 were good judges, but are not well underftood ; the introduftion of foreign words ufed by idolatrous nations^ into the Hebrew text, were known to the Ixx. and our Commentators would do well to follow their explanations.
Hence the Ban-ana plant, worfhipped by the Egyptiatis, as the fymbol of fecundity ; hence alfo, the Irifh dealb-an-dea, a butterfly ; literally, the re- prefentation of the goddefs Atiu ; the Egyptians re- prefented air, as the ciiufe of vegetation, by a butterfly.
Anu. I. Ith. I. lath, Anith. i. Anann. therefore Ith was mater deorum, likewife Sifj^n ^^^^' Chaldee
obfl:etrix., KH^Pl hhlta. Vita. Ith, In Irifli, is
wheat, bread corn ; and here we find Anu joined with Ith and Anu doubled, in Atiann, a name of Ireland. Ith or It, is derived from the Hebrew T^tDr\ it, et, itah, wheat. This Hebrew word fays Bates, is ufually put under ^jj-^ henut, for what rcafon doth not appear. I put it under this root be- caufe it is the only corn we always bind or tie up ■with a bandage.
We find Ith or lath, in a multitude of compounds in our Irifli Cabiri, as Anith, Jath nan Ann. Amudith, lomadith, Maloith whence maloid, (as before), Sughith, and many others — in our di£H-
onaries
PREFACE. jdi
otiaries ive find Ith, com ; Itham, to eat ; Ithadias, an ear of com ; Ithfen^ a dray for corn ; Itlur, a corn-fieki, foil^ land) country ) Amudith, the plen- tiful Ith } Deafc-ith, the berry of wheat 5 Sugh, fap, juice ; Sugith, wheat in fap. Ctefias fuppofes the Affyrian Derceto, to be the fame as Dagon, i. e. frumentum,* — it was a good guefs of Ctefias-
Auguftin fays, Seia, was the goddefs of new fdwn com; andSegetia when it began to fpring up, — Saoi or Saoidth in Irifh, is grafs, corn in blade — ni^jR Anona, cibus, pec. cquorum ut al. Viftus, commeatus, fruttientum, tributum annuum ad an- nonam confervandam. *
" Ainith, is the Anaitis of the Perfians and of the Copts, f But Anith or Antea was Ceres, as Mon. Gebelin proves. In Orpheus, there is a hymn ad- dreffed to Ceres or Demeter, and one under the name of mother Antea. \ Anaitis and Zaretis, Diana Ferfica. (Selden.)
This was the Al-Itta of the Arabians, al being only a prefixed article. Gad autem feu Dea fimpli- citer eodem modo vocabitur, quo Herodotus alias ab Arabibus Venerem, Alitta appellari teftatur quod eft Dea, quamvis alii nomen apud Herodotera Alleh efle putant— quod Domina fit Regina no£Us, hinc igitur denuo patet, Venerem eandem cum luna in Oriente habitaiti fuiife. Millius, de Gad. p. 124 1.
The Chaldaean Anedbt, mentioned by Syncellus, feems to have the fame origin ;— and hence I think
* Caftellus.
t Reland in his letter to Wllkins on the Coptic.
X Hift. AUcg. du Calcndr. page 575.
the
xlii PREFACE.
the Greek fable of Peleus and Telamon, both bom of the nymph Endeis, the daughter of Chariclo, i. e. (in Irifli Ceara-clu) the renowned Ceara, — and hence the ruftick Roman feaft of Anna Perenna. Hence alfo^ the Etrufcan Ammudatis. Ammudatis & Deus magnuSy invenio Ammudatem Deum cultum : fed quis & a quibus ne (Edipus divinarit. *
And the Syrian Mylitta f (or Mulita, i. e. Venus.) the Lus-for^oir^ and the Lusfo-iar of the Irifli, i. e. the light in the eaft, and the light in the weft ; the Lu- cifer of the Greeks and Romans, but they knew not, as the Irifli did, that flie is fo called, becaufe when flie departs out of the funs rays on the weftcm fide, we fee her in the morning juft before day break : it is in this fituation of Venus, that flie is called the Morfting-ftar, as in the other flie is called the Evening.ftar.
But as I have reafon to think thefe dry fubjeds unpleafant to my Irifli readers, I fliall give t^ names of the reft of the Cabiri in a lift, and leave to them to compare the names and attributes with thofe of other countries. They may reft aflured that the bafis of all the Mythology of the Jlaft and of the Weft, lies concealed in the philofophy of the Irifli Druids, and that there are fuflicient monuments ftill left, to prove the aflertion.
Dagh or Dagh-da, explained in No. 1 2.
Lute & Lufe, bandea, i. e. a goddefs. I believe the Gloflarift fliould have explained this in the maf- culine, a God. Louthat was the name of one of
* Dcmpfter dc Etruna Regall. t vD Mill plcniiudo.
the
PREFACE. xliii
the celeftial powers or good angels of the Gnofticks. Lahat, was an epithet of the fupreme God, with the Phoenicians.
Nath, I . dia an Cacht. Nath, the God of wif« dom. Nath ainm coitceann don uile aide eigfibh, (Vet. Gloff.) i. e. Nath is a name common for all fublime compofitions, as hymns, &c. Nath. i. Tine. i. Tin-cofg. i, teagafg. i. e. Nath, Tine,
Tincofg, fignify teagafg, i. e. wifdom. ^This was
alfo an Egyptian Deity. Urbis (Sais) praefes Dea, ^gyptiace quidem Neit : Graece autem, ut illorum fert opinio Ai^f«. (Plato in Tim.) i. e. Minerva nam A^uw antiquis Graecis, Tufcis vero Tina. (Gori), But we fee Tine and Nath, are fynonimous names for wifdom, in the Irifti.
Neit, dia Catha. Neit, the God of war ; neit in Irifli fignifies war.
Neaman Dogha. i . Uibhle tenedh. i . Ceara. Sy- nonimous names of the fame Deity. Eiriu, Eire, Eirinn, Por, Porfaibhean, fynonimous names. Por, is feed or race for planting or propagating. Saib- hean, fignifies Oats, (j^BtS^ Avena) and Eirinn, is fertile foil, ♦itj peri, in Heb. is fruit, corn. N. B. Eire, is a poetical name of Ireland, and is the Iris of Diodonus, inhabited, he fays, by Britons.
Ain. Mac Seathair. i. e. Ain, the Son of God.
Ain. I. Tauladh. i. Phan, Fen, i. Mulach, fyno- nimous names of the fame Deity.
Tath. I. Tait. i. Taithlann. i. Foghmhar. i. e. the Deity of the harveft. (See No. 1 2.)
Geamhar, i, e. the Deity prefiding over com in the blade.
Raidhe.
adir PREFACE,
Raidhe. i. Redhe« i. c* Sub deities of Re, the moon. Fauns, Ruftickg, labourers in the field.
iEdh. I . ^th, I . teinne, the Deity of fire.
Samhan. i. Samh-fhiunn, i. e. Samhan is the end of fummer, the clofing of the light of Sam, the Sun. (See No. 1 2.)
Dius, I ; Congo, 1 5 goirlog, i ; fambolg, i ; bolg, I ; bolog, f ; comhartha, ar neamh ar clith na ma- dideana^ i. e. Dius and the following words fignify an ear of corn ; it is a fign in the heavens, at the left of the Virgin.
See the learned Dr. Hyde on the Sibylla. In Arabic daufeh is an ear of corn ; and duffiiza is the Perfico-Indian name of this conft Jlation ; but here we are told the word implies Virgo. Secundum Phoe- nices & Chaldaeos, autumnali Tempore (quando fruges ad meffem maturae) praeeft fignum virginis feu puellae fpicas in agrolegentis ; hinc, infigni Aftronomo Perfae Albumazar, in Sphaera PersJndica in primo figni virginis decano oritur puella cui Perficum nomen dujhiza feu virgo. Apud Arabes & Perfas hoc fignum fynochdochic^ vocatum eft Sumbul feu Sumbula, i. e. fpica quae tamen proprie & abfque figura, eft tamen primaria hujus figni ftella fpicarum fafciculum re- prasfentans, nSl2E^> fibula in Hebrew is fpica ereda. in the modern Irifli it implies a gathering in of the com, whence fabhal a bam, granary, &c. Samhbolg an ear of corn ripened by Samh the Sun.
Samhan-draoic, 1 ; Cabur, i ; comhceangalladh ; of this hereafter.
Cann, i ; R^ Ian, i ; Luan Ian, the full moon ;
hence the Kann or Diana of the Etrufcans.
Samhan,
PREFACE. xiv
Samhan^ i ; Cdfil, i ; OioUa» L e« Sataii^ the DevU.
The Gredcs urere acquainted vith this dcm ; but I do not find they received him into their catalogue, which 16 the more ftirprizing, at they acknowiedge htm of Pbcesiician origin, ag we leara from Damafdm mhk Life of Ifidorus. Phot. Kbl. Cod. 24a, p. 1074. ** Aflclapiuc, who is worihipped at Beryte, U neither Grecian nor Egyptian, but Phoenician ; for Sdye haA <iiildren, who were called Diofcures or Cabires. The «ghth was ESMVNVS, that h to fay, ASiOJlPIOS. He was a youith of fuch exqufite beauty, ihztA/iron^Sj queen of Phoenicia, and mother of the gode, fell m love with him, if the fable k true« He, who took. <lelight lA attending the ilocks, percd^g the godde6 attadied iierfeif to him fb ftrongly, that he had no means of avoiding her, caftrsied hindelf with a hat- <tiet. The igoddefs, grieved to the foul at this affion, <:al}ed the youth Paian^ (wW n«74»v« nmxirmtm t«9 fuui^^M*^ ttnd placed him among die gods, dtat his paffion fhouM never be forgotten. X)n this account he was named ESMVNVS by the Phoenicians, though others fay lie was ib <:aHed by being the eighth fon of Sadyk; Efmunus in Phoenician Jrfiplying that number ; how- ever tliis is he who carries light in the midft of dark-
The reader \v31 find moft of thefe deities among
the Phoenician and Chaldaean gods mentioned by
HaHoway. And in Relandus, he wiH find Beth-Car,
Beth-Anath, -Beth-Er, Beth-Ere^ &c. &c.
Lemery at the word Oriza (rice) on the faith of Biron and -other voyagers, fays, that in India is a
•paged, remarkable ifor the delicacy of its workman-
fliip;
idvm
PREFACE.
real power of words and mufic over ferpents, from cof^oming or coofociadng them,— but the word czprdly meaiis a companion, an afibc^te, company, as Jud* XX. I . All the men of Ifrael were gathered toge&«r ^i^kuift the city, (Chabirim) knit together «s one man, and Job xi. 25. ufed it tn the lij;^ feufe, the Chabirim (companions) nuke a banquet for them*
Bochart, Selden and Cumberland have been mil- led by Paufanias and other Greek writers^ in explain- ing Cabiri to (ignifiy Dii potes, vel Dii magni. Saoi^pi^iatho tells us, from Sydyc came the Dioicuri, Cabiri, Corybant^ and Samothraces ; thej(e firfl in- vented the building of a ux^f, or a compleat fkip.
Bpch^Tt ackxvowledgf s, credebantur enim iis ho- buti ^uftiores fieri, & fan£tiores & in quibufcuiiqtte periculis praefentifSmos habere Deos, & a naufrapo i»zsav^ efie prorfu^ immunes. On voyages they were the prefervers of ftups from fhipwreck ; our Druids therefore najmed them Di-Ofcara *, the guar- dyian angels of travellers, voyagers, &c« Hence JafoQ, Orpheus^ Herwles, Caftor, Agamemnon, UlyjSe^, and Pollux, fought to be initiated in the Samothra- jciaa rites. But what is ilill flro^iger, Curra-bunxiith in Iriih, implies feip-buihters^ for the Gorybantcs were the facrificing priefts of Ceres, who was Ifis,
* My readers jouft ijot be furpnzfd at finding different ex- planations of the fame Phoenician words, drawn from the Inlh language. As new light is thrown ofi the Aibje^ by the more antieift MSS. thot have ktely come to my view. Thus, ia a ^CMTiacr pobllcatioa, I coihted t}]# Irkli Dijtir^ with the Puivc S>iofcufi $ but. on comparing the paflage of Sajjchoniatlio, with Bochart'^ Remarks, they evidcatly were the Drujdical Di- Ofcara ; for Ofcara fignifies a voyager by fea or land.
the
PREFACE. xlix
the great navigatrix, fo called for the Iriih Efs^ a {hip, as I have (hewn in No. XIL
The learned Spencer, that princeps Criticoruniy in his Diff. de Origine Arcse & Cherubinorum, plainly Ihews that Cherub in Hebrew doca moft properly imply ftrength, might, power ; but that Chabir im- plies yoaV, and were often written one for the other. It is the fame in Irifh. Cairbre is the moft proper word anfwering to Cherub,whenceCairbreLiffeachar, and a hundred other princes of Ireland were fo called. That Samnos and Saxnnothracia were fo called from the rites of the Cabin, having been eftabiifhed there by the Pelafgi, is allowed by all authors. Bochart, from a paffage iij Herodotus, conjectures they were called DIpTlOD Samadracos, pro morione fumitur, quail Samothraces Deos, id eft Cabiros, oris atque corporis habitur imitetur. We have fecn a better derivajtion, in the foregoing pages. From what has been faid, I conclude, that the myfteries of the Cabiri, confifted in the Arkite worfhip, fo learnedly handled by my worthy and learned friend Mr. Bryant.
The Greeks had confounded the Saman and the Cabiri, which were named Amain, or the mf^nal deities, from the Coptic anysniy i. e. infernum, and turned the name into Eumenides, L e. the good minded deities ; yet they always worlhipped them in fear and terror. From ament, came ament-dis, the deities of hell. The word may be found in the Coptic Pfalter, pfalm xvi. " Becaufe thou wilt not leave my ibul in (amcntj hell.'* Again, in Luke, xrhap* xvi. ** And in (amciu) hell, he lift up his eyes, being in torments ;" from this Coptic or -Egyptian Vol. IV. No. XHL E word.
1
PREFACE.
word, are derived the Irifh amain, aimhneac, dohm- ncac ifrein, all fignifying the infernal deep, hell, &c.
Another name of the Irilh Cabiri, was Tromh-dhe, tutelary gods, fays Shaw ; but whereas the proof? trom, I ; caimfeacus, i. e. Socii. Vet. GlolT. Hib.
If thefe Phoenician deities were known to the Welfh Britons, then we may conclude, that the Irifh and Welfh were one and the fame people : but if wc find, (as is really the cafe) that they were not known to the Welfli, or to the Gauls ; we muft conclude, cither that the Irifli are of another defcent, or that they had an early connexion with Orientalifls, who did not only eftablifli their religion, but their lan- guage in Ireland ; which I think has been fufficicntly proved. And thefe deities may have come to them by the Pelafgi or Etrufci ; for, Samothracia Sacra Etrufcorum inventum. Dardanus jeorum audor. (Virgil. Gori. Dempfter.) And we find moft of the names of the Irifh Cabiri on the Etrufcan monuments, as Anu, Ithia, &c. &c.
The Pelafgi and Etrufci, became one nation and people. Nempe Pelafgi, cum Tyrrhenis five Etruf- cis permixti. (Cluverius, Ital. p. 438.) Pelafgi, com- munemque cum Tyrrhenis terram incoluerunt. (Marcian. Heracl.)
SECTION VI.
Before I quit this fubjed, I mufl reply to a general objeftion made to the introduSion of Etrufcan co- lonies, to this illand. It is known that the Etrufcans were a very polifhed people, of Oriental origin, and
remarkable
PREFACE- li
remarkable for their Ikill in architedure ; where then are their buildings to be difcovered in Ireland ?
It is certain that our Druids, and the Etrufcans, like all other antient idolaters, firft had no covered temples, but made the holy fires on the tops of mountains,
'' Mundus univerfus ell Templum Solis.**
(Alex, ab Alex.)
Here they worfliipped Aefar, firft towards Samh^ the fun, and next towards the facred fires, as being the things in which the Logh chiefly dwelt. They direded their worfhip to Saman and the Cabur, in caves and darknefs. Such I take to be the cave of New Grange^ fo well explained by Governor Pownall. In this cave were three altars, correfponding to the fuppofed number of the Cabiri. But I have great reafon to think, they afterwards made their holy fires in the round towers, and that the building of them was in- troduced by the Tuath Dadanann priefts from Etru- ria ; becaufe we are told, that the old priefts, the Firbolg, oppofed the dofl:rine of thefe Tuath Da- danann ; a holy war broke out, which ended at length in two battles, one fought at the plains of the J^orth tower, and the other at thofe of the South tower. All this is the exaft refemblance of the Perfian hiftory. They firft made the holy fires on the tops of hills, but Zoroaftres, finding thefe facred fires in the open air, were often extinguiflied by rain, tempefts and ftorms, he directed that Jire towers ftiould be built, that the facred fires might be better preferved *.
* Frid^aux's ConneAiony 8vo. vol. x^ p. 306.
E 2 And
lii
PREFACE-
And it fo happens, that the tower of Cafhell, ad- joins a building called Cormac's chapel, that is of true antient Etrufcan architefture. ITie capitals of the pillars are of the rude Etrufcan order ; the arch is femi-circular, and in fliort, there is nothing of what we call Gothic, in the wholL- building. Cormac was proclaimed king of Cafhel, in 902, and at the fame time exercifed the funftfoiis of archbifhop of that See. 0*Brien fays, there is fufficirnt evidence that he did not build this chapel, but only repaired that and the two churches of Lifmore. The tradition of the oldcft people at Caftiel, is, that it was a Heathen temple, A plan, elevation and fedion of this very curious building, fhall be given in the courfe of this work, when we treat of Irilh buildings in general.
The Seanachiths, or hiftorians of Ireland, have recorded, that the Perfian religion thus reformed, was profeffed in Ireland, E. gr. Anno mimdi 281 1, do gabh Tighearmas M'Follamheim, M^Eitriail, M'Iriail faidh, M'Eircamoin, rioghacht Eirin oir ase an Tighearmas fo do thionfgain iodhal adh- radh do dheanamh ar ttus do Crom chruaidh, amhuil do rin Sorajtres^ fan Greig ; i. e. in the year of the world 281 1, Tighearmas fon of Foliaman, fon of Eithriall, fon of Irial the prophet, fon of Eremon, fucceeded to the throne. It was this Tighermas ef- tablilhed the worfhip of the idol Crom Cruach, as Zoroaftres had done in Greece. I take this from Keating, who probably ftuck in Greece, inftead of Perfia ; and Crom Cruach was not an idol, as I have explained in my laft number.
There was a Beth-Kerem, called alfo Beth-Akke- rem, (Jerem. vi. i.) in Codice Nidda, xi. 7. this
place
PREFACE.
liii
place is defcribed abounding with a red fand, and the dreams iffuing from it were of a bloody colour ; this correfponds fo perfeSly with the fabulous ac- counts of our Crom-cruach, that I could not avoid mentioning it.
The Greeks had the name of Zoroaftres in great efteem, fpeaking of him as the great mafter of all human and divine knowledge. Plato, Ariflotle, Plutarch and Porphyry, mention him with honour. Pythagoras, an Etrufcan by birth, was the difciple of Zoroaftres ; Porphyry fays, *' that by him Pythagoras was cleanfed from the pollutions of his life paft, and inftruded from what things virtuous perfons ought to be free j and alfo learned from him the difcourfe concerning nature, and what are the principles of the univerfe;'* and lamblicus tells us, that Pythagoras ftudied twelve years at Babylon under Zoroaftres, and in his converfe with the Magi, he learnt from them arithmetic, mufic, and the knowledge of divine things and the facred myfteries pertaining thereto. But, Pythagoras did not bring this doctrine into Greece and Italy, with that purity with which he received it from Zoroaftres. Abul-Pharagius, an Arabian writer, by religion a Chriftian, tells us, that Zoroaftres foretold to his Magi or Druids, the coming of Chrift, and that at the time of his birth, there Ihould appear a wonderful ftar, and left it in com- mand with tbenl, that when that ftar fliould appear, they fliould follow the direftions of it, and go to the place where he fliould be born, and there offer gifts and pay their adoration to him ; and that it was by this command, that the three wife men came from the Eaft, that is, out of Perfia, to worfliip Chrift at
E 3 Bethlehem.
liv
PREFACE.
Bethlehem. And fo far Shariftani, though a Ma- hommedan writer, doth agree with him, as that he tells us, that Zoroaftres foretold the coming of a wonderful perfon in the later times, who (hould reform the world both in religion and righteoufncfs. (Hiftoria Dynaftor, p. 54. Rcligio Vet. Perfarum, c. xxxi. Prideaux*s Connection, v. i, p. 328.)
I mention this circumllance of Zoroaftres*s hiftory, becaufe it is very furprizing that the Irifli Seanachiths fhould know any thing of Zoroaftres, if they derived from the Britains, and from Gaul ; but more parti- cularly, becaufe we find in moft of the antient records, it is pretended that an Irifli Druid did foretell the coming of Chrift. And there is great probability, that this was borrowed from their knowledge of the hiftory of Zoroaftres, through the Etrufcans.
Another ftrong circumftance of the Etrufcan co- lony from Croton, having arrived in Ireland, and mixed with the Thracian Paftyae, feems evident from tl^e name of Crutheni, Cruthi, Dalaraite, Da- laradia, Dalradii, Dalradii, Dalrieda, being the common name of the fame people feated in Ulfter, who afterwards pafl'ed over to Scotland.
Pergit ad terram Cruthenorum feu Dal Rietinorum.
(Vita Patricii a Patr. jun.) Dal Radii didi Crutheni. (Colgan.)
Dalaradios — ^populos Ultoniae, ex quibus oriun- dus fuit S. Comgallus & qui proinde cognati ejus ab Adamnano vocantur, eodem vocari Cruthi- meis. (Colgan). Here we find the Crethi or Paftya^ of Thrace, as mentioned before ; the name Cruthi- meis, fignifies Judge of the Cruthi.
Dalradia
PREFACE. Iv
Dalradia Regio Ultoniae, hodie Ibh-Tach.
(Colgan.)
Dai apud Hibernos communiter ufurpatur pro ftirpe, • ut Dal Raidhe, (feu Dal Raite) Dal Cais, &c. Ibh has the fame fignification, (OBrien's Did.) Ibh a country, tribe, people ; this is the Chald« rVHa provincia ; confequently, Dal Raite, fignifies the tribe of the Rheti ; populi a Tufcia ducunt originem, a Rharto Lydorum duce ita diGtu (Demp- fter de Etruria Regali.) — Ibh Tach or Tagh, muft alfo mean the tribe or defcendants of Tages ; Etruf- cus divinationis per auguria inventor ; hence the Salantini olim Dol-ates, (ibid.) — ^that is the Dal of Atys. But fays Colgan, Dalradia or Arradia, is faid to be fo named before the arrival of Patrick, from a certain king or queen, named Aradius.
Arctium, Regia Cilniiy Rex Etrufcdrum. Arre- tium etiam didum Etrurian urbs antiquiflima, ac potens. Colonia erat. Aretia Jani Uxor. (Dempfter.)
In the Etrufcan antiquities difcovered by Inghira- ihius, we find one moft curious, written in Etrufcan and Latin, on a iheet of lead, enveloped in wood and pitched canvas ; it was written by Profperus, the Augur ; and runs thus, Pater mens Vefulius Antii Fefulani, & Accae Cecinnae filius me non folum Ethrufcam, fed etiam Graecam & Hebraicam linguam docuit ; poftea augurandi artem & ipfius naturaearcanae— igitur cum ita res fe habeant, quae
* In Spanifhy Del. Arab, dal, famiHa. Hcb. ^^T dall, cx- traduSy n^^T dalith propago. — Sil, in Irifli, has the fame fig- nification, Hcb. *yjj^ Shil. Arab Sil-JIch.
apud
Ivi
PREFACE.
apud me funt, Romanis non relinquenda decrevi — quare in firmiori loco & tutiori hujus arcis cornua mea aurea^ & omnia facra Di-Anx repofui & penates meos & multas fcripturas, quas omnes apud me habeo.
Cl3l3CCCXIX : ex Tranfalpcnninis Coloniis magno exercitu comparato, Vulterram verfu$ venit. (Alcus.)
CIoI^CCCXXXIX : Crotonac concilium— Adri- enfes obfefli, poftquam opem a Rhethiis promiflam diu fruftra expedaiTent legatos ad Vulterranum fe- natum mittunt, orantes, ut ipfis Colonis ignofceret, yerum i\on ignofcitur : donee Adrienfes praefedum, & defedionis duces Alco tradidiflent-^ui dam* nati funt,
Thufcorum colonias hie reponit Fefulanus Cuftos hujus Scomellanae Arcis.
Brigania — ^Ebodera — Ceneftiacum Caerites^— Spina eifdem Pelafgis fabrica Fefulenfibus— — Cortona Crotonas.
Arretini autem habent.
Birgiam, Ogiganum, Cirtonam, Arietiapi, AI- benium, Ogigium, &c. Italiae habitatores funt Abo- rigines, qui ex -^giptiis prodiere. Profpcrus Augur, hoc fcripfit.
To this let us add, that the firfl: Etrufcan king after the fabulous time of the Etrufcans, was Meleus. Rex Etrufcorum totae Italias imperayit : he confe- quently was the leader of the Pelafgian colony to Spina, and afterwards to Spain, where Herodotus finds him under the name of Melefi-genes, and thinks it was Homer.— Decere eum dum juvenis cffet, regiones & urbeis vifere, — ^porro quum ex Hi-
fpania
PREFACE.
ivu
fpania & Tyrrhenia in Itfaacam deveherentur, con- tigit Melefi-genem occulis jam ant^ parum valentem, extreme laborare. — ^This fhews the origin of the Irifh Hiftory, and though I believe that part of the Irifli records not to be true in every part of the de- tail, there is good authority to fay, that fuch a co- lony did arrive from Spain ; of which I fhall treat in a future number. In fhort, the hiftory of the an- tient Pelagi and Ethrufci, is the fame as that of the antient Iriih. .
It is not only in hiftory, that the Irifh fhew an Oriental origin, but in the arts and fciences, the
terms, names and appropriations ;— for example^ in the military line ; with what contempt the Iriih troops, called Galloglafs's and Keams, are mention- ed by all Englilh writers. Words corrupted from Ciola-chlas, and Ceama ; but thefe are Hebrew names occurring many times in the facred fcriptures, S^n chil, Viri ftrenui. Tfl*?n chloz miles armis ac- cinctus. So in Irifli Culith, Charioteers. mS^ Kiiluth, Copiae militares, Turmae militum : Amufadh, light troops, lying in ambufh, DIDH hamus, miles eques levis armaturac & expeditus ad currum. Ceama, is from ]^if)np Karuain, milites evocati, qui precibus folum ad militiam aflumebantur.
The ancient Irifti had a corps called Shililah; they fought with fpears made of oak, pointed and hardened in the fire : thefe were a kind of light armed irregulars. In Chaldee t<nSt8^ fliilaha is a miffile weapon ; telum, gladius, miffile^ (Caftelus) and p^^ flielak, burnt: whence the common name at this day, viz. Ihileelah, a ftick burned at the end, carried by the Peafants to defend themfelves.
The
Iviii
PREFACE.
■y
ITic Spanifh narative of Pedro Teixiera, printed at Antwerp in 1 6 1 o, who was at Borneo in 1 600, and defcribing the weapons of the inhabitants, fays, *' Pero lo mas comun fon Selihhef que fon unos palos toftados tan rczios para herir como el heirro.** i. e. they fought with Selihhes, Jlicks burned at the end, and were as flout to flrike with as if of iron.
Heb. ]toi^D filufin milites veterani, Triari.
The Iriih Laineach, a fpcar man, is the Hebrew n^^ lanak, whence the Latin lancea ; So Ruim- neach corrupte Ruibneach, a fpear man, is the HD*^ of the Hebrew, lancea, hafta, fpeculum ; unde ItaL Ronca. Lat. Rumex genus teli ; all thefe, and many more military terms common to the He- brew and the Irifli, may be found in Plantavit, under jjnSo tJ^^K ^^^ belli.
I now take my leave of the xf^^*^ «^'»^*« of Irifli hiftory, and proceed to occular demonftration of the Oriental manners and cuftoms this country can boafl of, by monuments ftill exifting in the king- dom, which could have been introduced only by the Phoenicians, Pelafgians or Etrufcans ; or by the connexion of the Magogian Scythians with them.
My readers, by this time, are probably convinced, that fome foreign colonies, from the caftcrn coun- tries, mixed with the anticnt Irifh ; as a further proof of it, I cannot pafs over the Irifli names for Jhoesy words in common ufe, fo difierent from the Welfli. The mod antient flioes were made of buU- ruflies : this was firft praftifed by the ^Egyptians, as we learn from Balduinus, — " Ad -^gyptios redeam, apud eos e junco, quemadmodum e papyro, ut apud Hifpanos e Sparto, calceos in ufu fuifTe : cum junci,
quorum
\
P R E F A C E-
Ux
quorum feraciflima eft -^gyptus, in funcs^ ftrata, corbes, atque adeo calceos, non minus quam Spartum Hifpanicum. Spartem autem id, h quo Sparti Calcei^ ut & plcraque alia conficiuntur, junci fpecies eft." {Calceus Antiquus & Myfticus, p. 24.)
The names for flioes in Irifh, arc bhrog, bhrogamliy as, gheas, foirgimh, folas; triaghim, cuarthan, coifb- heirt, galoighimh, Cuarogamh, guifeir.
In Welfh, Efgid, kuaran, guintas, foliak, hop- pen, arkenj — ^kuaran, is corrupted from the Irilh cuarthan, i. e. cuar twifted, wound round, and the Egyptian and Chaldee j^j^n itana, junci fpecies ; i. e. Calceus, fays R. Jehuda in Gemara. See alio, Buxtorf, at the word, where he fays, ** his pedes involvebantur tain quern calceamentis, die propitia- tionis, quando prohibitum eft calceis incedere, fic ibidem mentio calceamentorum ex foliis dadyli, junci,** &c. &c. from the Irilh cuarthan, the Greek and Latin cothurnus feem to be derived, fays Lhwyd. Foliak is from the Irifli fol-as, compound- ed o(fol a covering, and ai a flioe ; from the Cop- tick Ae/oy ghefoj juncus ; whence the Irifli guifeir a Ihoe, hofe ; and the old Perfic gufh a ftioe ; and the modern Irifli geas-aire & geafaidh vulgo greafaidh a fhoe-maker.
The Irifli brog, is either from the Coptic broia juncus, (broia, jonc marin, St. Ifidore nous a con- ferve ce mot. Bullet) or contracted from beir wear- ing and gamh (nqj goma Chaldee) juncus. So is coift)heirt flioes, i. e. beirt worn, cais on the feet. Foirgimh, is probably two Chaldee words K'^fiK phera and NOIJ goma, both implying Juncus or the
BuUrufli,
Ir PREFACE.
Bnllnifii ; or from the IriOi foir proteding, faving, defending) & goma^ j uncus*
Their is another Irifli word, derived from the ufe of the bull-rufh, not to be found in the Welfli, and that is ftomon^ a rope. M^i2yD in Chaldee SimuMa^ jancus, a bull-rufli or ftrong grafs, of which ropes are made, lays the i.exiconiils. The only Welfh words for a rope in Lhwyd, under funis, are rhaf, tant, kord, rheffyn. The words here collated, are in fuch common ufe, that if the Welfh language had ever admited them, they could not have been loft, as Mr. Lhwyd juftly oberves of the Iriih word uifce^ vater«
THE
THE
lODHAN MORAIN,
o R,
BREAST-PLATE of JUDGMENT.
PLATE I.
(From Keating's Hiftory of Ireland.)
Ai D. 4. Do gabh Fcaradhac Fionfachtnac, M*- Criomthain-Niadhnar, Mac Lughoi-Riabhndearg, do fiol Eireamhoin, rioghadt Eirin 20 bliadhain. Mar Taothchaoch inghean Loic, mac Dairc do Cruithin tuaith mathair Fearadhac, as uime do garthaoi Fearadhac Fachtnac de dobhrigh go raibh ceart agus firinne da ccoimead lo na linn an Eirinn. As nai rcimhias do bhi Moran mac Maoin an, i. e. an ceart Breithon aga raibh an lodhan Moruin aige, agus do bhi do bhuadhaibh aice gi be do cuirieadh fa na bhraghaid i re linn breitheamhnas eigcirt do dhean- adli, go niadhadh an lodhan go daingion timpchioll a braghad, agus go mbiodh ag fafgadh ara bhraghaid go mbearadh an bhrath choir ; agus do niodh mar an cceadhna Icis an ti do tigeadh do dheanamh fiaghnaife bhreige go hadmbail na firinne dho, gon on lodhfm ata feanf hocal, mar an orduigheann iieach
an
4 lODHAN MORAIN.
Another was found fome years ago in the County of Longford, and fold for twenty-flx guineas.
The brcaft-pbte of the high prieil of the Jews, was named \ZfTy choflien, Exod. xxviii, 4. and in Exod. xxyiii. 15. DDS^D \WD chofhen mefliephot, that is the breaft-plate of judgment. The Greeks name it A^«^ i. e. rationale, quia ad pedus, rationis quafi fedem, fuit appofitum.
It is very particubrly defcribed in Exodus xxviii, and 1 5th verfe, ^' Thou flialt make the breaft-plate of judgment with cunning work, after the manner of the Ephod thou (hak make it ; of gold, of blue, and of purple, and of fcarlet, and of fine twined linen fhalt thou make it. Four fquare ihall it be, being doubled. And thou fhalt fet in it, fettings of ftones, even four rows of ilones, &c. And thou fhak make upon the bread plate chains at the ends, of wreadien work and pure gold, and two rings of gold, and thou fhalt put the two wreathen chains of gold in the two rings, &c- and thou fhalt put in the breafl- plate of judgment the URIM and the THUMMIM, and they fhall be upon Aaron's heart when he goeth before the Lord.
There i$ no miftaking this defcription of the breafl«plate of the Jews ; the chains excepted, it has no refemblance to that of our Hibernian Druids.
Lookii^ into Buztorf 's Chaldee Lexicon, I found
loden fignified the brcaft plate ; and that Moran, did
the fame ; but I could no where find loden-Moran
compounded. The commentators in my poffeffion,
afforded no information ; I then applied by letter
to R. J. J. Heidcck, Profeflfor of Oriental Languages,
and received the following anfwer :
" Sir,
lODHAN MORAIN.
€i
Sir,
" I find tSfiS'^Dn itrn chofcn hemefphot, or the bread plate of judgment, named iniO iH* loden Moren, by Rab. Joda in Talmud Sanhedrim, p. 1 34* And in Comm. Ein Jacob, p. 1 50, it is derived from the impcrfeft verb t^C^n which he fays is Moren, and C£)5£^D he fays is the fame as loden, and he adds, that the words Urim and ITiummim have the fame fignifi- cation ; but Rab. Simon in Ejus: p- 135 and 151, more plainly fays it is Moren loden, which according to Rab. Solomon larchis, is alfo lodcn Moran. Rab, Meir calls it Doen Moren, The Rab. in Talmud fay, that the Meffias fhall be called loden Muren. for he fhall be the judge, as in. Ifaiah xith. Thus, Sir, it is very plain that the Irifh name Is derived -Jrom the Chaldee Choflien Hemeflipot, or loden Muren *.
I am, &c.
Temple-bar, John Jos. Heideck,-
ift July, 1783. Prof. Ling. Oriental.
In the Irilh language Dunn is a judge, and Maor, a lord or chief. The explanation given by Buxtorf to Moran or Maran, fo perfefHy correfponds to Keating's pidure of Moran, one would think the Irifh word had originally the fame meaning* i^o
• The Irifti word is often written lodh, and I think has the fame meaning as Urim, viz. an oracle. Hcb. ^% iad, oraculum* prophctia^ as in £zek. iii, and xxii. And the /W of the Lord was there upon me ; lad is a hand, and thus it is tranOated in the EngHfh ; but the commentators all explain the word by propbctia Domini.
Vol. IV. No. XIII. F Maran j
6 lODHAN MORAIN.
Maran ; Dominus dicitur autcm de politico & ec- clefiafUco domino, id eft, dodore excellente, reli- (juorum fapie&tium capite : qui fimul judicaiidi habet poteftatem. Maran de fummo, qui prxerat rcliquis fapientibus quern etiamnum hodie communes Rabbini vocant Morenu. Inde & Chriftus vocatus fuit per esxellentiam Maran. Hinc vox ifta Syra in N. T. Maranaiba Dominus venit, qua extremum anathema indicabant*
AH the Hebrew writers confefs themfelves igno* rant of the materials and of the form of the Urim and Thummim. Kimcfai obferves, it is no where explained to us what were the Urim and Thummim ; it is plain from the Scripture, they differed from the ftones of the breaft plate, (in voce T^K-)
Munfterus fays, what they were no mortal can tell. Sirachis thinks they were gems ; and Schindler us, that it was only an infcription or writing of the name Jehovah, or fome other word, introduced between the linen of the breaft plate. Some aflert the words were written upon a plate of gold.
Many opinions might be colleded, but fays Rab. David, he^fpoke beft, who ingenuouily confeifed, that he knew not what it was.
That it was an inftrument of divine revelation, is very plain. And according to Jofephus, this^ oiacle ceafed about 1 1 2 years before Chrift. We learn from the Holy Scripture, that God revealed himfelf chiefly by four ways ; ift, by Nebuah, i. e. by viiions and apparitions ; 2d, by Ruach Hecodefh, i. e. the infpiration of the Holy Ghoft ; 3d, by Urim and Thummim ; 4th, by Beth-Kol, L e. the daughter of a voice or ah echo. The Hibernian Druids pre-"
tended
lODHAN MORAIN. 7
tended to Aijoy the fame divine honours, calling them by the fame names, except the laft, which they termed Mac Col or the fon of a voice, i. e. an echo *• The anfwer to thefe oracles were always delivered from the Dary the facred oak tree. Mr. Hutchinfon has (hewn, with a great deal of learning and judg-* ment, that the Heathens, in fome of th^r facred trees, recognized the very tree of the knowledge of good and evil ; and alfo, more particularly thought he faw frequent mention of it in the old Teftament, under the name of "HTH hadar, i. e. the refplendetit tree; but we are no way informed of what fpecies of fruit the •n dar was- (HoUoway Orig. Phyf. & Thcol.)
The antient Britons call the oak dar and derw, perhaps from ^n for its durablenefs ; from a con- tradion of their dar an oak, and dewin a prophet, they feem to have formed Derwiddon, the famous Oak Prophets called Druids, (ibid.) f
The prophets and their actions mentioned by Mofes, which were before him, or which are occa- (ionally mentioned by others after hiin, prove that there were fcveral before the flood and the patriarchs, and fome few others afterwards ; of whofe predic* tions, fome are recorded, 'till Mofes who was like
* Breith-call it an oracle in Irifh ; corrcfpooding to the Cbaldcc JfSp rna Birath Kola, i. c. fiHa vocU : from the Irifti Aircacalp the ^.atin Oraculum. Call*mhuia is another name of an oracle, meaninp^ the voice of Man, i. e. Dcus.
f There cannot be a ftronger example of the Welfh and Irifh languages having been the fame originally ; and of the corruption of the WeMh. I have elfewhfre ftev^n the derivation of Dru or Draoii a Druid« the plural of which is Draoilh, whence the Welfh DrwiddoQi perhapa wUh Dunn 10 the termination.
F 2 the
8
lODHAN MORAIN.
the great prophet, was raifed up. Eccief/ Antcdiluv. xiii. Gen. 6, and 5, dicitur fpiritus Dei difceptaffc cum filiis hominum quae vox \\1 DUN per totam fcripturam fignificat publicum ofScium in Ecclefia, feu predicationem qua arguimur, reprehcndimur, difcernimus bona a malis ;• hence the Irifh Dunn^ i. e. Ollamhan a dodor, a Druid in his Oracular office.
The antient Heathfcns, the falfe priefls to their falfe Elahim, performed, I thirik I may fay, almoft every individual article in the inflitution and excr* cife of the priellhood. And though among the mo- dem Heathens, fome abufes had by ignorance and miftakes, crept in ; yet in tlie main, they retained many of them, and fomcthing aiming at thofc they miftook: which is another demonftration, that all thefe inftitutions and typical aftions, were in being and praftifed before the difperfion at Babel, f
1 he Heatlien falfe prophets, pretended their deity, their light, their fpirit conveyed their wills to them, by all the methods, by which Jehovah conveyed his will, or the knowledge of things part or to come, to the true prophets, by oracle, by dreams, vifions, fpeech, &Cfc and imitated as far as they could, the true prophets in their aftions, &c. which is demon- ftration that oracles, prophets, and all thofe methods, were irt being and praftifed before the difperfion at Babel. As it is clear, that while the effencc was united to a man upon earth, and the Holy Ghofl fupernaturally infpired the apoftles, &c. Chrift fuf- fered fatan, the infernal fpirits, to dwell in men, and
* HutcIiinfoDi Data in Chrift. p. 62. f ibid. 83.
b7
roDi
by fome of their as it was in their reafonably be fup and prophets befo be permitted to d( tatcs the Heathen, the divine oracle 1 ceafed with the ap pretence to oracle thens. It almoft had been fomethii no longer permitt' the callings out a names in the Rt Whether our Ma of the Jodhan Mo Holy land, or if il municatinn with t thaginians, t cam imitated th^ Urii before usj - The to ufe feveral orh; the Heathenei' ; 1 language, fo as to the Egyptian ■ of Such may have b mitri, which are- I
• Hutchinfon Dal
t The leampd MiB facra gcmilibus cum ITraditai, fed ab Krat
X2 lODHAN MORAIN.
may be fynonimous words, correfponding to the Irilh Uraim or (vcl) Tammam. *
The High Prieft was not to confult the Urini for
' .any private ptrfon, but only for the king, for the
prdident of the Saiiliedrim, for the general of an
, army, or for for foiae other great prince or public
. governor in Ifrael ; and not for any private affairs,
but for luch only as related to the public intereft of
the nation, cither in Churcif or State.
Our Hibernian Druids nev,^r confulted the lodhan Morain, but in the courts of jufticc, or on affairs of ftate ; to all their decrees Urrainij i. e. implicit obe- dience was paid.
Indubious cafes, or where the intereft of the Church was concerned, or the eleflion of a king, they consulted the Liath Meisicith, or Liath Fail-
* To avoid t!ii3 confufion, the Irilh language cither prefixes cei ke, i. C4 feeing that, or affixes gus^ i. e. fadl, deed, truly ; ex.gr. ceoy keo,<7;y//: from Wbenccthe Greek jmu : 0tf/«/» contra^, ed to agus : or, o^ndeUf i. e. aod In truth, contracted to andea : it is remarkable that agus is only to be found in the Egyptian,
' Bafc, or Cantabrian ; and in the Irlfh, Erfc and Manx:
from oundea, is formed the (German unde, the Teutonik code, and the Englifli and^
»
THE
mmmm
mvmm
THE
LIATH MEISICITH.
PLATE n.
"Ik
T/jis very curious monument af antiquity^ is the prt^ pertypfT. Kavenagh, Efq; of Ballyborris, in the County ^Carloxv.
1 T is a box, the fize of the drawing, and two inches deep, it is made of brafs cafed with filver : it con- tains a number of loofe flieets of vellum, on which are written extrafts of the gofpcl and prayers for the fick, in the L^tin language, and in the Irifli charac- ter. There are alfo, feme drawings in water colours of the apoftles, not ill executed : thefe are fuppofed to be the work of Saint Moling, the patron of that part of the country.
In the center of the lid is a large cryftal,* the fiz^ of the drawing and one inch and a quarter
thick;
* Crioft-al in ln(!i, fignifids a holy flone ; and is probably the true etymology of the wortf, and not from xfvf^^ frigi**? for the Greeks could not be ignorant* that cryita} was the produce of hot countries as well at^ of cold, — the beft is foqnd in the idand of Madagafcar :— the flrongeft cryftajlizations arc formed by heat.
14
LIATH MEISICITH.
thick ; this h the Miijicitb : it was originally let through the cover, fo that the light could pafs through : on the back of it, there is now a foil of tin, moveable, evidently the work of a modem day* At the right hand corner at top, is another cryftal on a red foil ; next to it a bead of a tranf- fparent compofition : the ornament that ftood next is loft : thofc of the two left hand corners have been taken out, and the fockets filled with common glafs on a red foil. At the right hand corner at bottom is an oblong piece of cryftal on a red foil ; next it a tranfparent bead ; and laftly, an amethift- drop of a deep purple colour : there have been orna- ments at the two ends of the Meitidth, which are alfo loft.
The box reprefents the Roman Thuribulum, in which the incenfc burnt during the facrifice. Se- veral drawings of thefe ftiay be feen in Montfaucon.
I am favoured with drawings of fcveral boxes of this kind, fabricated fmcc chriftianity, being orna- mented with crucifixes : this has no marks of that kind, and appears to be the Druidical Liath Mcifi- cith or Liath Fail, in which they pretended to draw down the Logh^ the effence or fpiritual fire, and pre- fcnce of Aefar, (God) whenever they confulted this Oracle.
Hence the xiy^^ the articulate voice or fpeech in man, (in its kind or degree) what the Divine A«r«f9 word^ is to the elTence, viz. the Irradiaion ad extra of the mind or foul. The fame notion, there- fore, the Heathehs had of dieir God, the/olar lighij and called it rxcordingly, by the fame name Aiy^. (Holloway's originals, v. i. p. 222.) With fubmif-
fion
LIATH MEISICITH.
'5
(ion to this author, the word Logos was applied by John in oppofition to the Druidical Logh, for John wrote againft Cerinthus, a converted ' Druid, and therefore very properly ufed this word ; from Logh is derived the Iriih and Coptic Lo, day, the light of the day.
How this fire was communicated, I cannot pre- tend to (ay, but, as it is well known, thlt Cobalt ground up with oil, will lye an hour or more in that un£bious ftate and then burft into an amazing blaze : * it is probable that the Druids, who were fkilfid chimyfts, (for their days) could not be igno- rant of So fimple an experiment. A fire lying fo long concealed, would afford them ample . time for prayers and incantations.
Nothing could fo well fuit the purpofe of the Druids as bringing fire from oiL Oil was the em- blem, the facrament of that complex vertue, of wiiddm, juftice and mercy, called Holinefs. " Myf- ticc fic intelligentibus. Oleum eft ipfe Dominus, a quo ad nos pervenit mifericordia.'' f Specimen quoddam divinatis in oleo prse omnibus tetrae, a^ que arborum frudibos, veteres omnes agnovifle quamdamque cxcellentiam divinitus quodammodo in eo ol^ collocatam oftendunt. | And thus pro- bably the facred fires were lighted. Juftus Lipfius, thinks this was done by an inftrument like a fun- nel
* Experiment lately made in London^ before Mr. Bankf. (Letter tome), f Clem. Alex. p. 1 29. ' X Sdiac. Myroth. p. 224. ibwL p. 567. Sec alfo Eufcb.
Demonftr. Ev. 1. 3.
6 LIATH MEI
lel, colle^ng the rays of the f Dipra&icabie in this dimate. ' noft«r igniB, a£Uonem: divii [uid matcri^e- repent in facrif luriAcat, & a vincutis mat^if ura: puritatem ad Dcorum acit.'* : - •
Clu-iftiMiity took its name f riftitutionof oil. The emble ^on --was anointing : the \WD Mefuh : thofe who ant re DttiB^O ' "^^ word conft i ntCD Mefliaih, rendered an Sreek itirrmt, Xf.r^, the Meffi;
Mr. ODonneli, of the Baroi orms me, there was in the h; Jarnard, of Fahan, a preciouf ailed in Irifli, MeeOiac, a wor •rew, and to fignify a Vow. 11
crucifix and: the twelve ape :ribed by Sir iJenry Piers, ii neath *, by the name of Cor/ refence, dbo new body; a n -hriftian miflionaries, in oppo lefar, or Logh, the fpiritual iey ptetertddd to draw fron;
The cryilai Hone in the c Jeificith ; or the iVIagical fto
Liath, i. e. Lith, i. e. Seod gnify a gemm. (Vet. Glofi".
• Cellcflanta Vd I, We (hall g!'
)urfe of this work.
LIATH MEISICITH.
>7
Meifi, i. e. Dealbha Sithbheara, i. e. Mcili fig- nifies, magical reprefentations. (ibid). Meifi, a judge, fairies, ghofts, hobgoblins. (OBrien
and Shawe.)
Lith, folemn, feftival. (OB. & S.) Lith lai, fefti- val days. Lia fail, the fatal ftone. (ibid.)
Leice, (corrupted of Liath-cith) a precious (lone, a diamond : In the highlands of Scotland, a large cryftal of a figure fomewhat oval, which priefts kept to work charms by ; water poured upon it at this day, is given to cattle againft difeafes ; thefe ilones are now preferved by the oldeil and moft fuperfti- tious in the country, (Shawe). They were once common in Ireland : I am informed the Earl of Tyrone, is in poffeffion of a very fine one.
A/if*^, gemma, politus lapis ; hence Pbilo-Iithos^ qui gemmas amat. (Pliny).
Mais & Meifi, have both the fame fignification in Irifh, viz. Draoidheaft, * i. e. Druidifm. Cith, is a vifion ; whence cim, I fee ; ocitear, feeing that* The correfponding Hebrew words are jJt^o mafa, prophetia dura, jf^^ n^aza invenire, comperire; 1^ chi, revelatio ; Chald. j^^^ chitfeh, videre ; Arab khei, a phantom.
The ufeofthisftonewasftriftly forbidden to the Jews by MofeSjin the xxvi. chap, of Lev. ye (hall make you no idols nor graven image, neither rear you up a ftanding image^ neither (hall ye fuffer the flone nOB^O niafticith, to be within your dominions.
• Every term appertaining to the tenets of the DruMical re- ligion, IS tranflated draoidheachty by our modern Lexico- graphers.
The
f^
i8 LIATH MEISICITIL
The Vulgate and Englifh^ have miilaken the (enfe^ and tranilate this pailage^ by ** neither fiiall ye fet up any image of (tone in your land." Montanu^ lays, & lapidem fpeculationis non dabitis in terra Teftra* The LXX very properly name this ftone x19h (niirlt i that is gemma fpeculationis.
x»0TH derived from nt»r|«^Ni« (ignifies, delibero, con- * folto. Skopai, non fpecula tantum, fed etiam a&us fpeculandi denotat, (Spencer). rMnUf, fpeculor, con- tempior, intueor, obfervo animo agito. AV«rxM»i, divinatio ex infpedione seris.
No words in the Greek language could more properly have exprefled the form and ufe of the die liath Meiikkh, than xii^^ n^wU. The fame ftone is ^suH forbidden in Numbers xxxiii. and 52. ^^ llien ye (hall drive out all the inhabitants of the land from before you, and deftroy all their CDnVIXWD Mafhdothim, tranflated n^wti^ by the 70, and fic-^ iures in the Englifh veriion." It is evident from this pafiage, that Maihcith in Hebrew, is the fingular number and not plural, as many of the Rabbins would have it.
Hie LXX, The Rabbies of the apoftate Jews, and the Chriftian Ecclefiaftics, ''fays Hutchinfon) have had the management of the tranflations, and the handling of the Scriptures : the LXX, &c. have confounded the roots for their names, con- flrued a word in one place one thing, in another {dace another thing, to avoid the meaning : and ' moft of the Rabbies would have their inftitutions to be taken firom the heathens, to be fuificient in themfelves, and have no reference to the divine in-
(titutionSy
\
LIATH MEISICIATH.
19
ftitutions, which were at the beginnings * Yet he allows, that many things have been revealed and recorded Ance5 ^^^ many things more antient, have been lately difcovered. f I am afraid our author has pafl a hafly judgment on the 70 ; for although, as Leufden thinks, part of the original tranflation of the 70 was loft, and the reft made by much later authors ; I cannot help thinking the various words they have given for the fame word in Hebrew, was done with great confideration and defign.
No paffage in the old Teftament has perplexed the Commentators more than this £bn Mafhciih. Dodor Spencer, after reciting all that has been written on it by the Rabbles, concludes, that a man muft be a prophet rather than interpreter, to underftand them ; Vatem potius quam interpretem pojlulare videatur : and the learned DoSor is of opinion it muft have been fomething, formed fix>m an Egyptian or Syrian model.
Some of the Rabbles thought it was a tall ftonc, others an Obelifk, which they worfliipped, others that it was a mute idol ; and others, that it was a tower, from whence to explore the ftars : but the Samaritan text, calls it ebn mithnaggedahj that is, lapis indicationis aut annunciationis. Aud my late very worthy friend Mr. Moore, author of the Manx verfion, very properly names it cloch-thoit, (or hoit corrupte) that is the magical ftone. Poole, is not very diftant from the form of it, by calling it a fet- itone, lapidem inclufum.
* Data in Chriftianity page 206. f Ibid, Religion of Satan, page 51,
But
If. levitc. 96.V.I.
LIATH MEISICIATH. at
INNE CAC .LEF ISEF ETITVA
in Irifli AITITE FEISI. FEIL CAC EINNI
('. t.
The joyful feaft for any bounty.
No. 2. Reprefcnt3 an altar without fire; the ardft hag placed a fmall blaze on the ground, to fhew the dilappomtment. A woman Aands by the altar with a Iamb in her arms,' to point out the in- tention of the facrifice. The fame old man and his attendant are retiring from the altar in hafte and confufion. A Druidcfs leans over the altar lament- ing and explaining the caufe of the ill omen. The Infcription in Etrufcan, is,
AIHTI . S : VC -EA ISEF * ETITRF
In Irifli FRITITE. FEIS. AE. CVC. S. ITHIA.
(. A
Returning unfuccefsful from the feftival facrifice of " the Lamb (vowed) to Holy Ithia.
N. B. The Etrufcan Infcripion is to be read fi-om right to left.
Vol. IV. No. XIH.
PLATE III.
1 HIS little image of brafs, is of the fize of the drawing ; it was found under the root of a tree, that was grubbed up in the County of Rofcommon j it has been gih, but the gilding is worn off in moft [daces. It is in the coIleSion of the Mufcum of Trinity College.
This Image has the appearance of an idol ; the hands hold the corners of the beard, like the Etruican Silenus in Gori's coUeftlon ; but, the pofition of the arms and feet have every ^pearance of its having been the ornament of a crucifix.
The Irifh Druids, like their Scythian a permitted no image worfliip. The unchifell was the emblem ufed by all antient natiot Chinefe and Indians ftill retain this ftonc, their pagodas are crowded with images, and F declares that all the antient Greeks had wnblem of their deities.
Maximus
Maximufi^ Tytiiis faysj that before tfi€ rime of Mahummed, the Arabians had no other } and the Mater De6rum of the Romans, wad a bfeck fough ftone. The Etrirfcans dakn the art of making ana* ges 5 they eertainly learnt it of theiBgyptiand j btrt the Etrufcans were the firft that formed them afternatiitr e ; the jSIgyptians deferve no eulogium on this account, their figures are clumfy and unnatural ; thofe of the antient Etrufcans are as bad ; but the figures of the more modem artifts of that wonderful people, arc equal to the works of the mod celebrated Grecian artifts.
In the Gentleman's Magazine for December 1742, is an account of two filver images found under the ruins of an old tower, which had raifed various con- jedlures and fpeculations amongft the antiquaries. They were about three inches in height, reprefenting men in armour, with very high helmets on their heads, and ruffs round their necks, and ftanding on a pedeftal of filver, holding a fmall golden fpear in their hands* The account is taken from the Dublin papers; the writer refers to Merrick's tranflation of Tryphiodorus, an jEgyptian (that compofed a Greek poem on the de- ftrudion of Troy, as a fequel to Homer's Iliad) to fliew that it was cuftomary with the antients, at the foundation of a fort or city, to confecrate fuch images to fome tutelar guardians, and depofit them in a fecret part of the building ; where he alfo inferts a judicious expofkion of a difficult text of Scripture on that fubjeft.
^rhe defcription of thefe images correfponds exaftly with the Etrufcan ftatues, fee Gori's Mufeum Etruf-
G 2 oum.
4 BRAZEN
iim, pL 40, 45, 108, 1 1 7a early half the height of the
If any gentleman in Irek nages, the author of the imfelf greatly obliged, if hi
fight or a drawing of them
THE
CHARTER HORN.
PLATE IV.
Th E horn from which this drawing is made, is of ivory, has fixteen fides, and is mounted with brafs, indifferently gilt. Round the mouth piece is the
following infcription : ctgutaniuflf jflDlatjan me
fecit Deo graciajBt, U % U Tlguranius O Lavan * me f^cit Deo gracias, L H. ۥ that is, Tiguranius made me for the love of God. It was the property of Thomas Kavanagh, Efq ; of Ballyborris, in the County of Carlow, who has generoufly added it to the College coUedion.
ITie famous horn of York, h alfo of ivory, and like ours has fixt^en fides ; it is fomewhat larger than this, and is flung with a belt ; ours is made to ftand. Drake in his antiquities of York ftiles that, ** the famous horn made of an elephant's tooth, " which is indeed the greateft piece of antiquity the
♦ Probably O Laffan, and anceftor of the Laffan family, now T^dcDt ii) the County Kilkenny.
" churcl>
26 CHARTER HORN-
^' church ran f yhihit, having beea bellowed by king ** Ulphus, the fon of Toraldus, who by rcafon of a ** diflference like to happen between his eldeft fon ^' and his younged, about his lordfhips when he ^* (hould be dead, prefently took this courfe to make ** them equal. Without delay he went to York, and ^^ taking with him the J^ra wb^ein he w^s wont to ^ drink, h^ -filkd it with wkie, and knaeKng down ** before the altar, beftowed upon God and the ** bleifed St. Peter, all the lands and tenements *.*' In antient times there are feveral ipftances of eftates that were paffed without any writing at all, by the lord's delivering of fuch pledges as thefe, a fword, a a helmet, a cap, a horn, a bow, an arrow. ** Nuda Ferba abfque fcripto yel charts, tantum cunj donn|ii gladio, vel galea vel Cornu,*' are the ei^prefs words of Ingulphus: Coi^nua nptse religlonis & fanditatJs erant, res & perfonis "peculiari fan^tate donatais, & reKgioftis obferrandas indieantia. Hence Keren or Koran in Hebrew and GJiaMee, and Cearn, Com, in Iiift, fignify a horn, • <?up, gJory, majefty ; whence kears, viftory ; kearn airdhe, a trophy ; keam duais, athletick laurel ; Jerem*. ii. and Hi. ^ he hath cut off in his fierce ^nger all the korin (glory) of Ifrael ;**
mK^9r^V
T-^ ad^it ^oraua pauppri viaum.
Hence horns were? ufed as marjv§ of religion, fanftity, ind of things* aud p.erfons devoted to religion, and an indication df; religious obfcrvations : they werfe dedicated to deliics, and often huiig upon the creann' naotnhtha, or holy trees of the groves. So
• Sec alfo Camden's Britannia.
' the
CHARTER HORN. 27
tbe jEgyptians in their hieroglyphics exprcffed Ifis by hortis, and the Etrufcans and Gre^s orntmiented their deities with horns. Dr. Spencer fliavs, that long before the age of Mofes, the horn was the em- blem of ftrength and royalty, of dignity, and excct- Icncy. Amobius fays, rivers were reprefented by homed ftatues ; and Porphyrius, that every facred image had it^ particular horns allotted them ; but the learned J. Douglas (in his Anna!. Sacr.) proves that d)e altars of the antient heathens were made -entirely of horns ; miror & innumeris ftru^m de comibtts aram. (Cydippe, Ov. Ep. 20.) whence the Iriih words earn an altar, camac a prieft, fuit-ceamach a donation to a religious purpofe, and hence the Latin Cameus Apollo. Jupiter's nurfe Almathgea, (i. e. the Irilh Am-alt*itha or the mother nurfmg ItHa) was reprefented by a horn full of fruits and flowers, a cornucopia, which ftill paffes for a fymbol of plenty, though the fAyfical reafon and ground of the device, has been long^fwallowcd up in fable and romance, 'while nothing more was fignified by it, than that plenty of the rich fruits of the earth is produced by the operationjs of the horns or rays of light, and one name in Hebrew for that fire at tihe orb of the fun was Ynn chriiiri, whciice the Irifli chrian or grian, 'the fun, the folar heat, and the Latin Graiiheus Apollo ; hence alfo the Irifli Cruinne, &\e Mundane ifyftem.
' There is a curious paffage in Inghiramius's Etrufcan
antiquities, tranflated into Latin from the Etrufcan,
• that not only points out the origin of our Anu •,
R
. ♦ dtt Prc&cc.
from
2S CHARTER HORN.
from whence the Latins formed Diana, but (hews that the great Meufe deer was common in Italy as well as in Ireland, but at that diflant age, was an .animal unknown to the Etruicans. The infcription was written on lead by Proi'perus Fefulanus in Ul- terranenfi Collegio Augurum Socius, and runs thus : •^-" poftridie, dum foderent in loco, ubi fjatura erat porta, inventa funt Cornua Cervina immenfa magnitu- dinify quae eum ad fex cubitos fepulta eflfent ; vifum eft omnibus prodigiujm ; cornua Di-Anae fblemni ritu & {acris ceremoidi^ dicata fure ; asdificata arce, Mutius MauTus primus cuftos, aure^ cornua eorum loco pofuit fuper aram, & qux inventa fuerunt fubter aram ad t res cubitos in tempio ipfms Di-Aoae/ ' Thefame is recorded byAIcus Filaccus; and the infcription con- cludes with thefe words, ^^ demum defperata falute hie ea repofui, quae ad Di-Anam pertinent, ne eis Romani potirentur. Profperus Cuftos Arcis.**
Thefe horns were facred to Ana or Anu, who with Ith and Dagh prefided over the produce of the earth and waters, and were denominated Mathar, i, e. firft caufe, ,whence the Romans formed their unknown gods, the Deae Matres, that Spon takes for deified women, who while living, were thought to have the gift of prophecy, J but the Druids taught they were only the Adhbhan or Abhan, compounded oi abbar^ the caufe or inflrument of fertility, afting under the power of ^far (God) and hence they were deno- minated Aufanii. Bx^t* the etymology, of Anu is in the Irilh language fignifyi^ig ^ cornucopia \ a cup, plenty, &c. The fub-druids always carfied an Anu with them, and it was held facred, that every fpring in Ireland, fhould be fupplicd with a horn chained
to
CHARTER HORN. 129
to a ilone. Sir John Chardin remarks, that the der- vifes of the eaft always carry with them the horn of a goat or of an ox.
fti the third vol. of the Archaeologia of the London Society of Antiquaries, arc the drawings of fix horns, and a very ingenious differtation on the Charter Horn, by Mr. Pegge. The Pufcy horn (there de- fcribcd) i$ that of an ox, tipped with filver, and mounted with feet, like ours ; on the middle ring is this infcription in black letter.
King Knowde geve William Pcwfc This Home to holde by thy Londe.
The horn of Corpus Chrifti College Cambridge, is alfo that of an ox, and mounted with feet. The charter horns of Carlifle cathedral, as they are im- properly called, are fuppofed to be the teeth of fomc very large fifh; they were given by Hen. I. to the prior and convent of Carlifle, with a large eftate to be held per quoddam cornu eburneum. I^ord Bruce's horn is an elephant *s horn or tooth; it is a hunting horn, flung, and moft elegantly ornamented.
The Earl of Ormondes horn is remarkable. In his will, dated July 31ft:, 15 15, he makes particular mention of it, as in this extrad, taken by Thomas Aftle, Efq ; from the regifter called Holder^ in the Prerogative Office, viz. *' I Thomas Butler, Knt. erle of Ormond do make this my lafl: will and tefta- mcnt, &c. Item I give and devife to my dar dame Anne St. Ceger — to my da^ dame Margt Bolin, late the wife of Sir Wm Bolin Knt, my manor of Newhall in Eflex — ^Item when my Lorde my father, whofe
fgul
30 char:'
ibul God aifoHe, lefi
whjie borni of ivory, gold, and corfe tbcreu barres of gold, aod aj vas myn auacetours a tmaitr, and hath fytbi fame blode, for \<^yi:li coBimuided me upon my devoir to caafe ii as far furth as that m to the honor of tlie fi accompliftimcnt of m; is in me to execute th tors delyver unto Sir apparent of my faid d borne and corfe, he thiffuc male of his bo( lack of fuch iHiie the delyvered to Sir Geo. dar Anne, and to tb fliall come of the bod to contynue in the if fame dame Margaret i fortune any fuch ifliie faid daughters. And the body of any of ■a to remaine, and to be of my faid auncetoui in my blode hereafter, tyke as it hath done 1 blodc."
The antiquity of < letters I. H. C, whic
! I
CHARTER HORN. 31
Greek word IHCOC, or ftand for I. H. S. i. e. Jcfiw Hominum Salvator, The antieht Greeks ufed c for fj as in that infcription,
e£OiC aCiaC kai ErpQnHC.
And this continued to the firft tges of Chriftianity. In the Symbolas Litterariae Opufcula of the Floren- tine academy, vol. iii, are defcriptions of many antient croffes, where c often is found for f; indeed the / feems to be formed of r, foftened as in the mp4em Freivrh and Spetftiih f ; but on an infcription in the Bafilica Vaticana, ereded by Conftantine the great, we find both letters ufed on the fame marble, viz. HATAoC. pETPoS, tbat is, Paulos, Petros, and on a crucifix in the fame church
ihCotC, xpiCtoC, geoV. tioC, Cothp,
diat is, J^fus Ghriftus Dei iiiius Salvator. It is remarkable that Soter is here vifed in the fame fi^nfe as SeMihar in Irifii, meaning god, ftrength, Siviour. The author of the eflay concludes in thefe words, ^ (^asri hinc coeptum eft, in idco in fikcris ittteris inditum fit Chrifto fervatorb Y.»mi^%% nomen, ut conftaret Chriftum fi^tiis inter Deos, & faomfinea fenratbribus nuiiquam non opponendum, potiorque & optimo jure Dei "Zmrnitf & Regis £«T?(«f five A»«^v5 nomen obtinere ?** ♦ I therefore con- -dudie, tiiis cup was made about the fifth century.
* p. Mr P»:i4>ui> til the fvn^e vol. p. gat.
THE
THE
H
A
R
P
O F
BRIEN BOIROMH.
PLATE
V.
'
J. H E harp from whence this drawing was made, was handed to me with the following anecdote: " Brien Boiromh being- flain in the eighty-ninth year of his age, at the clofe of the mod memorable and renowned vidory he had gained, over all the united powers of the Danes, on the plain of Clontarf near Dublin, on Good Friday, in the year of our Lord 1014 ; his two* fons by his fecond wife, viz. Tcige and Donogh, fucceded' to their father as Coregnants on the throne of the two Munfters (Thomond and Defmond.) Teig being treacheroufly flain at the in- ftigation of his brother Donogh, anno 1023, Donogh took upon himfelf the fole government of Leth- Mogha, and foon after became chief king of all Ireland j but, after great loffes and humiliations, he was dethroned by his nephew Turrlogh, fon of Teig,
anno
BRIEN BOIROMH's HARP. 33
anno 1 064 *• He then went to Rome to crave the remiiCon of fins, particularly of the murder of his brother Teig, and carried with him the crown, harp and other regalia of Brien Boiromh, which he laid at the feet of the pope. The holy father took thefe prefents as a demonftration of a full fubmiflion of the kingdom of Ireland, and one of his fuccelTors Adrian IV. (by name Brakfpeare and an Englifhman) alledged this circumftance as one of the principal titles he claimed to this kingdom, in his Bull of transferment to King Henry IL Thefe regalia were depofited in the Vatican till the reign of Henry VIA. when the Pope fent the harp to that monarch, with the title of Defender of the Faitbj but kept the crown, which was of maflive gold. Henry fetting no value on the harp, gave it to the firft Earl of Clanrickard, in whofe family it remained till the beginning of this century, when it came by a lady of the De Burgh family, into that of Mac Mahon of Clenagh, in the County of Clare, after whofe death it paffed into the poflef&on of Counfellor Macnamara of Limerick. •'
In 1782, it was prefentedto the Right Hon. Wm. Conyngham, who has depofited it in the Mufeum of ' Trinity College.
This Harp is thirty-two inches high & of extraor- dinary good workmanfhip : the founding board is of oak ; the arms of red-fally : the extremity of the uppermoft arm in front, is capped with filver extremely well wrought and chiffelled : it contains a large cryfial fet in filver, and under it was another
* See AddaIs of Tighernacb. Chronicon Scotorum. AnnaU •f iDQisfalaot and Law of Taaiilry. Colledaaea, vol. 2, p. 540.
ftone^
34 BRIEM BOIltOMirs HARP.
ftone^ noir loft : the buttons or omamenial knobs at the fides oi this arm are of fiWcr. On the front arm at ay are the arms of tlxe O'Brien hmihf^ chafed in filver, viz« the bloody hand^ fupportcd by Horn : tbefe are reprefented as brge as the original in the comer of the ptate at a. On the fides of the front arm, within two circles, are two Irifh wolf^ dogs cut in the wood : - the holes of the founding board, where the ftrings entered, are neatly oma« mented with Icutcheons of bra£s carved and gilt : — the large foonc£ng holes have been ornamented, probably with filver, as they have been the objed of theft* This harp has twenty-eight keys, and as many firing holes, co^fequently tliere were as many ftrings* 11^ foot piece or reft is broken ofT^ and the parts to which it was joined are very rotten* The whole bears evidence of an expert artift*
In Montfaucon's ^Egyptian antiquities, • is a wo- man playing on a triangular harp, about the fize of our Irilh Harp. Polyd. Virgil, fays,, the harp of the Hebrews, was in the form of a Greek delta a and had twenty -four ftrings f. Tlie fcibulous hifto- ry of the Chinefe informs uj, that Fou-hi took the wood of Tong, made it hollow, and formed a Kim (harp or lyre, lays Gouget) of twenty-feven ftrings of filk ; it was three feet fix inches high : this inftru- ment he called Li : he took the wood of Sang, and made a Seh or Se (harp, lyre or guitar) of thirty- fuc ftrings : But Niu-aua (the Eve of the Chinefe) made feveral inftruments of mufic. Seng and the hoang^ ferved her to communicate with the winds. .
♦ Fontpe d'Mf| Vol. 4* f Dc ittvrtit. rer. I. f . e. ti*
By
BRIEN BOIROMH's HARP. 35
By the Kouene^ (he united all founds into one^ and made concord between the fun, moon and ftars. She had a Seb of fifty firings, whofe found was i(M aSe£ling, it could not be borne ; therefore ibe re^ duced them to twcnty-fitye. *
Here are fo many old Irifh words iignifying mu-- fick, melody, harp, &c« one would be inclined to think, that the Chinefe had borrowed thefe termg from the Scythians. The antient Irifh had four names for the Harp, and probably each was of 9 different conflru£tion, viz* i. Clar*feh or Clarieaclu l« Cionar, or Cionthar. 3. Crut or Cruit« 4. Crabtine Cruit or Creamtine Cruit, Clar, fignffies a trough, a deik, a table, a board ; and fi^, fighe and leach, is harmony, melody ; Arab, (hook, har- monious } fo that Clarfeach implies the melodious tables. Cionar is evidently the Hebrew and Chaldee M*Y)lO Clinura unde »i^«. Crut is alfo the Chal- dee or^ji^p Kithris, undd Cithara, iu%« & guittara ; but the Creamhtine Crut or Cream-Crutin, by ^e Aame, imports the harp ufed at potations or carou* ials ; whence Creamh-nual a noify drunken com« pany, which exadly correfponds with the defcrip- tion given by Midras Rabba in Echo, of the Chaldee ri^ffy^ Krut or Krutin ; it is, fays he, a profane mu- ncal inftrument ufed in drinking boufes and mufic houfes.
Lomna is a cord or firing of a harp, whence Lomnoir, vulgarly, a Harper. Tead, is alfo a cord or firing, and tead miotalte, the firing of a harp ;
• Chxncfc Hiftory by Lc Roux dct Hautci-Royc«, Royal Profcffor.
becaufe
36 BRIEN BOIROMH^ HARP.
becaufe made of wire, it is literally the Chaldce iriNW ttSDD nietallicum netum, or wire ; hence Teadidhe a harper, and Teadh-loin a harp ; that is, the merry making ftringed inftrument, from loine, merriment, cheerfulnefs ; loin-dubh, a black-bird, i. e. the black harmonift ; loineach, a chorus, a highland catch, (Shawe). Arab Ian placidus. The Irifh Teadhloin, pronounced Tealoin or Tclin, is certainly the etymon of the Welfli Teylin^ a harp ; a word I can fmd no derivation of, in that language ; and I think, proves from whence they borrowed both the inftrument, ahd its name.
The Irifh diftinguifti very plainly between the ftrings of the harp and thofe of the fiddle ; the laft they name feith or feidh, * that is zjinew ; whence feidhlin, a fiddle; and perhaps the Englifh fiddle, phiol, violin. Feith is litterally the Phoenician and Chaldean ^j^q phetha, i. c. nervus ; Perfic phei. Feith in Irifh is alfo chord, a rope, and there is every reafon to think the Eaftern people made their firft chords of fmews, as we find in the Chaldce, gid fignifies a finew, and gidlim & gidal, a rope : iather, a finew and a rope : pheth a finew, and phethil a a rope, &c.
Mr. Harrington in the Archaeol. Vol. HI. and Mr. Evans in his diflfert. de Bardis, think that the Crwdd or Crwd was peculiar to the Welfh nation. I believe the only honour they can have, is the in- vention of playing on this inftrument with the bow : yet this fcems to have been known to the Irifh alfo,
* Hence the Latin fides, fidium ; the firings of a mufiGal in- ftrument.
for
TOHE I.RISP CROW^. 37
ibf in our a>aunoa Lexicons we fui4 Cruit, a harp, ^ fiddle, a crowder. Moutfaucon in his fixth Vol. collets upwards of twenty Latin and Greek names for haj^ ^and Ijre, and obferves that many of them .^goified the/sune inftrument.
, The fecpufikind of, Britifh bards/* fays Seldcn,
arc.thofe.thatjplay^ on .the harp or crov/d: their
mufick for .the . moft ^pi^tt came out of Ireland
with. Griffith. ap Conan, prince of North .Wales,
^ about ,king Stephen's time. The Britons affeded
,thc mind, compofing Dorick j which is. ihewed in
- that .part .of an old author. (Marc. .Heracleft.) ^fErm- *ing ^that i^ipa;«^ ;^j«'p,,, i. e. to make thtfm gentle ^ natuDcd, the wcAern people. of the world conftituted -the :ufe of. mufick in their aflemblies, though the /Irifh^from Mjhence they learned^ were wholly for the
• fprightly.Phrygian." *
In an ant|en^ -MSS.. in my peffeffion, called the
- Romance of Cearbhall, i« this paffage, •* agus ro boi CearbiaU an tan fin ag orphideadh d* Aofar
• cumtha idir and a codhlai : i. e. and at that time
- Cearball was playing on his harp to the Almighty Aofar (God) after .his firft fleep." N. B. this paf- fagc occurred to me fincc the explanation of the
• JEtrufcan Aefar in my laft number.
THE CROWN.
t-A .*J
The Crown here reprefeijited, is copied from an engraving given by the tranjl^tor of Keating in ' the
#
« . J
{lejns^rjkq o^ DrayCoii's Pol/olbion, p. 1759.
y .Vol. IV, No. XIIL H frontit
38 THE IRISH CROWN.
frontifpiece to his hiftory of Ireland; there oas been (fays the tranflator in the preface) a difpute " among learned men, whether the antient kings of Ireland, of the Milefian race, wore crowns of gold, after the manner of other nations. We are inform- ed by He£l. Boetius, in his 2d and 10th books, that the kings of Scotland, from the time of Fergus to the reign of Achaiiis, ufed a plain crown oi gold, mil- iar is valli formay in the form of military trench; and it is more than probable, that in this pradice, they followed the Irifli monarchs from whom they derived their defcent and cufloms. And this con- jedure, is ftill rendered more reafonable by a golden cap, (or crown) fuppofed to be a provincial crown, that was found in the year 1692, in the county of Tipperary, at a place called Bam-an-£Ii, by the Irifh, and by the Englilh, the Devils bit. It was difcover- ed about ten feet under ground, by fome work- men that were cutting turf for firing^ This crown weighs about five ounces ; the border and the head is raifed ia chafed work, iix, the forn^ here reprefent- ed,' abd it feems to bear fome refemblance to the clofe crcwxl of the eaft^rn Empire, which was com- pofed of the helmet, together with a diadem, as the learned Selden qbferv^s 4n his titles of honour^ chap. viii. page i . Some of the antiquaries of Ireland, have imagined that this was the crown worn by fome provincial kiiig under Brien Bpiromh : others are inclined to. believe, it belonged to the Irifli monarchs, before the planting of .Chfiftianity in this kingdom, and thty give this reafoijii>ecaufe it is^iot adorned with a crofs, which was the common en- fign of chrlftian princes.' -HoWcVery it is a Taluable
- - . piece
THE IRISH CROWN 39
piece of antiquity, and would unavoidably have been melted down, had it not been preferved by Jofeph Comerford Efq ; a curious gentleman, defcended from a younger brother of Comerford, of the county of Stafford, who attended king John in his expedition into Ireland*
Another clofe crown of gold fimilar to this, I am informed, was found fome years ago, on the eft ate of Mr. Stafford. A cow plunging in a bog, trod on the crown, and piercing it with her hoof, carried the crown on her leg into the gentleman's farm yard. The balls of this crown were not chafed, but raifed almoft globular, like thofe reprefented on our Vifcounts Coronet's. Mr. Selden remarks, *^ that teftimonies are npt clear enough in credit, that tell us Ihmvallo Mulmutius, king of the old Britons, and the old kings of Scotland, even from Fergus the firft, wore golden crowns ; but it feems from old Britifh monies, that the diadem or fillet perhaps of pearl, alfo was worn by king Cunobelin.*'
OFlaherty in Ogygia, page 46 ; fays, the antient kings of Ireland, from whom Fergus defcended, wore golden crowns \ that the Irifh name of fuch crown was Aifion, and afterwards Coroin ; and he particularly mentions a gold crown of king Catir, who reigned A.'D. 174. Now Aifion inEtrufcan, is the name of the golden crown placed on the heads of the dead princes. Corona aurea nobiliores defunfti ornabantur, (Gori.) ppj^ afun in Hebrew is death, mors, exitium ; & aifion, in Irifh, is alfo a relick ; as, aifiona na naomh, holy relicks ; aiflihe^ a Ihroud. I believe O'Flaherty has mif- taken the diadem of the dead for that of the living
H 2 prince.
40 THE IRISH CROWN.
prince, for in all our Lexions, OBrien^s 6xctptcd^ we find coron, crun, fleafg, cruineacan, fynonimdus for a crown ; and I cannot help thinking that Gatir was a fiftitious name, from the Hebrew or'Perfian ^P3 Kater or ^Kcter, for both Vafhti and Either, were crowned with Kcter Malcuth, that is, the crown or diadem, or enfign of the kingdom, the Citaris and iillet on it. Both the vuIgate and LXX, turn'thefe words diadema ; and fome will have Ceter in Efther, to be but the fame word from 'whence Citaris was firft made. However, the Hebrew com- pared widi die profane writers, fays Seiden, juftifies clearly that there was a crown of gold, as well as a fillet for a royal enfign in Perfia. Aifbn or afun in Irifli, properly fignifies any royal enfign as a fcepter, or ftaflf of dignity, (in Arabic Afa). 1^. Gr. foidis dino an tuafal Jacop Jofeph oimindte agus dfun in a laimh. i. flat in a l^mh, (Leabharbreacht) i c. Straightway the noble Jacob fent his fon Jofeph properly arrayed, and with a ftaflf of dignity in his hand : Here afun is explained by flat, a rod, a fceptre ; and this word in Hebrew, fignifies to go- vern. Saobhathis another Irilh word fcv a Druid's Hod, from the Hebrew gj^jjf fliebct, which mjilies Virga, fceptrum tribus.
PL AT E
/ f
^^
^In/ehtx
ID
4
1
A
LATE VI,
Fig. I. ANP 2. are of Gold*
i. HE oentex pieces or handles are folid, and the ends terminate in cups. Fig. z. weighs three ounces eighteen penny-weights, and is in the College Mufcum. Fig. a. weighed ten ounces, ^d was fold to a goldfmith, who informs me he had melted down feveral of this form ; one weighed fixteen ounces : he found Ibme, the handle of which vcre of fdver chaied with plated gold. Fig. 3. and 4. are alio of gold, but differ from the firfl in hav« ing the circular ends flat, and the handles or bow parts ornamented. Thefe are evidently fibula: the circular heads paffed through the button holes and lay flat on the body, and the chafed or ornamented part was turned to the eye. In the Archaeologia of the London fociety. Vol. IL are drawings of two of the larger infl:ruments, varying in the form of the cups, which of one, are perfedly hemifphericaU
The late Bifhop Pococke, prefented thefe drawings to the Society, &c* by his memoir, we find he
thought
42 PATERiE URN.
thought thefe aho were a fpecies of fibula. I am of opi- nion,Mr. Simon, (author of the effay on the Irifh coins) judged right, in thinking they were ufed in the religious ceremonies of the Irifti Druids. I think they were paterae : one of a moft delicate conftruftion. Fig. 7. was fent to me fmce the former were engraved : this, from its make, could not have been a fibula ; it weighs exadly two guineas ; was found in a bog on the eftate of James Cuffe, Efq ; of the county of Mayo, and is now in the poflfeffion of Judge Hellen 2 hitherto, nothing fimilar to thefe inftruments, has been reprefented or defcribed in any book of an^? tiquities.
Fig, 5. was drawn from an urn of baked earth, and of very rude workmanfbip ; it was fbund near Baalnamolt, on the mountains between Clonmell and Capoquin, under a fmall tumulus, with the mouth downwards, covering fome black earth flained by the burnt afhes of the corps, and part of the jaw bone and fkuU of a youth not burnt : it was prefcnt- ed to me by the Rev. Mr. Ryan, parifh priefl of Baalnamolt, aud is now in the mufeum of Trinity College. The Irifh MSS. mention, that in times of Paganifm, the dead bodies of Princes and Druids were burnt, but that thofe of chiefs and generals, were buried with their arms, &c. So that like the antient Etrufcans, * the Irifh ufed both modes of burial at the fame time.
>Fig. 6. Is a drawing from a vafe of brafs ; it was found in a bog twelve feet deep, near the ruins of Grey Abbey, in the Ardes of the county of Down,
* P. Bonarota. Epifl. Tho. Coke, page 35.
on
irikM
r
ii
4^ tlxc
pa it:
IVI Hi
Cl'
:c
c
!
J
PRiEFERICULUM. 43
on the eftatc of William Montgomery, Efq ; A. D. 1 742 ; it is in the College Mufeum. The form of this vafe is much in the (tile of the antient Etruf- cans : I think it was a praefericulum ufed by the Druids in their facrifices. Montfaucon, in Vol. V. has an antique brafs vafe, a trois pieds, that much refembles ours, — ^he thinks that ferved as a praeferi- cuhim and for culinary ufes alio*
THE
Ai
THE
CROTAL, CORABASNAS or CiBBU AL.
PLATE Vn.- — ^Fig. h
1 S the drawing of a muflcal inflrument ufed in the chorus of the antient Irifli : the circular plates are of brafs, and the brafs wire or worm part, round the fhanks, jingled, when the plates were (truck upon by the fingers. Six of thefe were found in 1781, in digging up part of the park of Slane, the feat of the Right Hon. William Conyngham ; one of them is in the College Mufeum. In the firft volume of the Academy of Cortona, are two plates of various kinds of Etrufcan Crotolse, " inftrumenti da fonarc, detti
dagli antichi Crotala." " Crotola quoque dici
fonoras fpha:rulas, quae quibufdam granis interpofitis pro quantitate fui, & fpccie metalli fonos edunt.** (Jof. Sarifber. Policart. 1. viii. c. 12.) This is the ex- aft defcription of our Samothracian rings, of which hereafter. Crotala is an Irifti word, formed of crot, or crut, the handj and ala to Jhake, Cibbual has the fame figniiication, viz. cib the hand ; biial to
ftrike;
CROTAL, CORA»ASNASi3r aBBUAL, 45
ftrike} i. e. inftruments ftnick with the hand. Corabafnas is formed of cor mii/ick ; and bafnas of bety exa^^ keeping time^ and nafc ^'ringj a circle, i. e, i. e. an inftrumeht wherewith to mark the time in mufids::
The antieitt Irifli had alfd a bafe called coman,. viiigjo- cfbtian, • a ^ord formed of cor miifick and aar 01^ a^an, - ba/^^ - chorus. Chaldee ^^^ . enan -^chorus^ r thiere was another named iachdar-channus^ Latin* Cantiis Baflus, of air which I ihall treat fuUj, when» defcribing the mufick of the antient Irifh.
They had alfo a Cibbual or Corabas, compofed of inany fmail plate? of brafs, or of (hingles of wood^ faftened with a thon^ that was held in one hand and' firuck on the palm of the other, vulgarly now called ^ clapper or rattle ; this was the antient fyilra of the^ Egyptians j named in Scripture menabnahim^.2JgreQzhl& to the Hebrew idiom, fighifying the Jhaiihgrjhaiing^ inftruments, tranllated by LXX itifJUx^ cymbals. David had this- inftrument, among, others, founded before the ark of the Lord, when he fetched it from. Keriath Jearim, 2 Sam. vi. 5* but he would not uib the fame that the ^Egyptians did j therefore ajs theirs, were of hr^ky his are faid to be of fir, with addition of thin plates of fome metals *•
Whether our Irifli Corabas may ferve to explain the following, lines in Virgil, which Servios and Pierus think- were altered from the original, I leavQ my readers to judge.
Hinc mater cultrix- Cybfele, CQrybantiajqjue aerea, Idaeumqae nemufr
w^mmmmmmmmmm
jSneid iii, v. 3.
• Hollpway's Originals, vol. 1, p, 146;
Th^
46 TRUMPET.
The Stoc or Trumpet, and cf its ufe in our Round Towers.— Fig. a.
Reprefents a brazen trumpet of the antient Iriih, many of them are found in our bogs. This drawing was made from one in the College Mufeum. They had various kinds of trumpets, viz. the ftoc, buabhall, beann, adharc, dudag, corna, gall-trompa. Stoc is the Chaldee JTipp takuh (buccina) with / prefixed. Coma the Chald. Kjnp karna : buabhall, beann and adharc, from their names, betoken they were made of the horns of animals. Dudag, I conceive, muft have been a very fhrill trumpet of brafs, from its name, dud (ignifying the tingling of the ear, whence the poetical compound dudaireachd the noife of horns and trumpets. GalUtrompa implies the foreigners (Englifh) trumpet.
The conftrudion of the Stoc here reprefented, is Angular, the mouth hole is on the fide, and fo large, no mufical note could be produced. It was a fpeaking trumpet, ufed on the tops of our round towers, to affemble the congregation, to proclaim the new moons and quarters, and all other feftivals. The takuh of the Chaldees and Hebrews was for the fame ufe. Buccina incurva : ufus ejus multiplex erat ; ad con- vocandum ccetum Ecclefise ; ad indicandum feftum Sabbathi ; novilunii ; pafchatis, &c.— -/fr//> erat bene pojfe injlare. (Buxtorf.)
Virgil, Statins, Silius Ital. and many others, give the invention of trumpets to the Etrufcans. Tuba primum a Tyrrhcnis invenu (Ifidor. 1. ii. Etym. c. 20.)
Tubam
TRUMPET. 47
Tubam Tyrrheni primi invenerunt ; laudatoque Virgilio deinde addit : banc a Tyrrbenis prsdonibus excogitatam dicunt, cum difperfi circa maritimas eras, oon facile ad quamque pracdae occafionem voce aut buccina convocarentur, vento plerumque obftrepente. Hinc poftea bellicis certaminibus adhibita eft ad de^ nuncianda figna bellorum, ut ubi exaudiri praeco prae tumultu non poterat, fonitus tubae clangentis attingeret, (id. 1. 17.) denique dividendis vigiliis, ineundo praelio, &c, &c. in all which fervices, I believe the fpeaking trumpet, not the mufical, mud have been ufed.
Acron will give the honour of this invention to Dircaeus, from thefe lines of Horace,
Pod hos infignis Homerus
Dircaeufque mares animos in martia belU*
J)ircaeus, I believe, was a horn-trumpet maker, and took his name from the Irifli adarc, a cow's horn*
Thefe trumpets being found in the carn3 and raths, (fepulchres and forts) belonging originally to Irifh chiefs, Dr. Molyneu^ attributes them to the Danes, with much the fame fuccefs as Dr. Plot does the brazen Celts found in England to the Romans. The figure of that given by Molyneux in his Natural Hiftory of Ireland, differs from this, in having two rings near the fmali end to fufpend it.
The Earl of Drogheda has one, with four finall brafs pins or fpikes within the mouth or greatefl end^ feemingly to hold faft a fecond joint, that probably terminated in the form of our modern fpeaking trumpets.
Li
46* TRUMPET. ROUND TOWER.
lardie fecond voL of xbc Arch^ogia of the Londoft Society, is a diilertation on- the round towers of Irdaady by Mr, S. Brereton, that perfeftly defcribes not only the ufe of thefe towers^ but of the trumpets, his words are, ^^ When I lately made the tour of Ireland, I faw feveral of thofe buildings called Peni- tential towers ; not one of them had either belting or gffting, nor the leall fign of there having been any. room in them, tiU within ten feet of the top ; that room had windows exa£Hy facing the cardinal points, from thence downwards to the entrance, which is about fifteen feet above the furface of the ground, only a few flits were cut, jufl to give light to perfons going up or down flairs. Theiie towers are all built of ftone, and exceeding flrong, the flones and mortar remarkably good ; and in general they are entire to this day, though many churches, near which they flood, are either in ruins, or totally deflroyed." •* I think them rather antient Irijhj than either PicKA or Danifh flruftures, having never heard of one like Aem in Denmark, or any other part of Europe, ex- cept in Scotland ; I faw one at Abemethy, near Perth, which exaftly refemblcs thofe in Ireland. Upon looking into Gordon's Itinerarium Septentrionale, I find his opinion is, diat it was the work of the Pids •; what reafon there is for fuch a conjefture, I do not fee ; I rather think we may conclude, when the-Irifli made their incurfions into Scotland, they built the two towers there, after the model of fo many they had left behind them in Ireland. However, I deem their antiquity to precede the ufe of bells, cafl ones
• Of the Pea^ai a Thracian colony, fee Preface.
at
TRUMPET, ROUND TOWER. .49
at leaft , in that country ; aif d ' fronv thoir finiatioft s near churthes, and having a 'floor and windows oitly
-zt the top, I verily believe their principal ^nfcto 'have
' been to receive a pcrfon to call the people to wofihip with fome wind inftrument, which would be heard from a much greater diftance than fmall uncaft bells
' pollibly could : one of thefe towers at Drumilkin, is at this day made ufe of as a belfry. In Mahometan countries, the voices of their Muezins, or callers to prayers,' Vs^ho ftand for tfiat purpofe on turrets, much
' higher than their mofques, are heard to a very great diftance."
" The JEgyipfianr tit this • day, protlaim ;rhe :time-t)f worfliip with fome wind iiiftrument from a high
•place } which I rather takenotice of here, Ijccaitfe the Iatc1&ifliOp*Pocotke often mentions :the amazing conformity he had obfeirved^between the Irish and the Egyptians in many inftances."
The trumpet lAd the horn were founded on the tops of the hills and of the towers, on any approach- ing* d^ger ; and on the declaration of war againft a neighbouring' ftate ; on this^ccaiion the Druid liglMied a number of fticks called crois*tara, at ^d'hdy ^e, with thefe, the people ran frbm place to ^lace, -aiid followed the homsr to the hills. Croiftara, 'fays Mr. Shaw, in his Irifli Lexicon, is a- fignalto takeAip arms, by fending a burning ftick from ^laeeto^pJace with great fexpedition. 'This word *i« 'of tlhaldee
. origin, D^n chris, the folar fire, and \nr^ tara, an aflembly *. 6abikara was another Irifh -name of
"* Hence Tambarj the reatofthe'ISiflnnonarchBy'inKl'iained
TKkA^httwSxL cl thrtiiensml-^eoiblj' of tM ftate»thtrc.
this
so . BRASS SWORDS.
this ceremony, from gabaly burning with great flame* Whence the Phoenician and Irifli Uilegabal and the Arabic Algabil, unura efle e Dei epithetis..(Bochart) and the Greek Heliogabalus, the prieft of the SUN, a word that originally had not one Greek letter in it.
The troops being affembled together by this means, as foon as they came within fight of the enemy, they fct up the war cry, the CRIOM-ABU, two words of Chaldee origin yfy\ DT^^n chirom- ubau ; the firfl fignifying bellum, internecio ; the fecond exultare, and then rufhed on to Catha, Chal- ^^^ ttn^niS* See Job xxxviii. 23* In latter ages, each tribe had their particular abu, but the anticnt general term, is preferved in the Leinfter family,. by the motto, CROM ABU. See Criom or Griom further explained in PI. XL
: Fig. 3. is the drawing of a brafs fwojd in my pof- iieflion ; \t is twienty-two inches long :. Jin the College Mufeum is one about three inches longer. Many of thefe arc found in, our bogs, that from which this 4rawing was made, was found* with about two hun- dred otj^ers of the feme kind, in the bog of CuUen, in county Tipperary. The handles were of wood or bone,, and were rotted away^:the rivets only re- maining. . ^ . . .
The weapons of the antient Irilh were all of brafs or copper, mixed with iron and zinck ; fo were thofe of all other antient nation^ j . for.sflthougLthey had iron, it being a metal rery. . difficult to be ex-
trafted
BRASS SWORDS. 51.
trafted and fdfed, they only mixed fuch a quantity -with the coj^er as to harden it ; this metal^ lays Montfaucon, became as hard as iron, all kinds of cutting tools and inftruments were made of it, but the art of tempering this mixture is now* loft.
Where with our brazen fwords-
"^ (Drayton's Polyolbion)
The Author (fays Selden) thus teaches you to know that among the antients, brafs, not iron, was the metal moft in ufe ; their little fcythes where-- with they cut their herbs for inchantments ; • their Priefts razors, plow ihares, their mufical inftru« ments and fuch like ; how fpecial this metal was, it is with good warrant delivered. Nor with leis how frequent in the making of fwords, ipedx and armour, in the heroick times. As among other authorities, that in the encounter of Diomedes and Hedor mahifeileth.
'^XtiyX^n y^Tl xUXic^i y,n,'KM%. Ulad A« -brafs rebounds from brafs.
And iGoIiah had an helmet of brafs upon his head, and he was armed with a coat of mail, and he had greaves of brafs upon his. legs, &c.
Sed prius IExi% erat quam ferri cognitusufus.
Lucret. 1. 5. ggratum quatiens^ Tarpeia fccurem.
^^n* xi.. ver. 656. ^rataeque micant pelta^;. tnicat 0;reu&.ea^.
•. jEn# vii. ver. 743.
• Sec oneof thcfc, PI. X.. Fig. 4.
The
4 ■
^
I.
54 B* R A vS S '. S 'W O yR;D S.
, I
iT^ Ipears of ^e (.ufits^mans^^iays Strabo^.were : .poiaUd with brafs ; the Cimbrians - 0fid Gatds > had •{ ' brafs for th^iij weapons; 1 the Danes ;m^cvtheirib£«t Ts&^qirdsy arrowi pomts,'ipur& and kmvje&of bi^^ * When, iron became kaown, and. its iAipoior bacd* nefs acknowledged, it was f^arce. The Sarfnatians hadf no ixpn in all tjieir country, f The Germans "^ had none in Tacitus's time ; and in Britain, iron '^jwa*' very, (carce, as" Gaafer fays, fo that it isw no . won- ••^ridiat antiently theiv ^vieapona were. made ofhtafs. ^IFhe Caledonian heroes :o£ O S S Iv A N, ihone in «^poli(hcdSTEEL!!
•^Acao)rding to the .Arnfidelian. Ai^aibles, iron was '^ Bot found out till i88;yaarSi before ihe.war:of Trioy. «^ Some of our bFaft«&rbtds.were.ient to goi^crnor c'^j^whall,' ^o has given ^^^£>Uowing ^accurate .de- t'-fcf iption^of^them, in theArchstologiisL^ YoL iii*>page '^ 5*55; ***Aat-the foeiety- might- have a ^vecife.and philofophical defcription of the metal^L applied: to the i^aiten of the^mint j and by his direftion, Mn Alchorn, his Majefty's ^ Aflay^tiRAfteryom^eL an ac- . curate aifay. of the-m^tal.. It^ appears, fay^ be,. to be i .chiefly. cfQpper,* intejfpcrfed with particles of iron, and perhaps fopie ;sinick,.but without containing either gold or filver : it fcems probable, that the mcit^ w&s calt' iuiite /pr^fjant; il:ate,.^jaod lafteiiwards • reduced td its proper figure by filing. The iron might either have be6iKX)bti^nedi j«itb-^he~copper •*ficom»the orev or added afterwards in the fufion, to give the^neceflary rigidity^ of a weapon ;.;.jbtft I con- 'Jfeft myfelf niniible to determine any thing with cer- tainty.-—Thcfe fwords are as exaSlly and minutely
* Worm. Mon. Dam 48. f Paufaniat, Attic. 1. i.
5
r
uJl
i «
J ^ 1
,-11
I -
BRASS SWORDS. 53
to every apparent mark, the fame with thofc of Sir William Hamilton's collcdion, now in the Britifh mufeum, as if they came out of the fame armoury : the fonfier Ibund in the fields of Cannae, are (aid to be CARTHAGINIAN: thefe, therefore, by parity of reafon, may likewife be faid to be of the
fame people. It does not appear, as far as I know, that the Romans wer£ ever in Ireland either as foldiers or merchants. The Carthaginians, or at leaft theGADITANI, certainly were there."
To this accurate account of the Governor's, (which perfeftly agrees widi the Irifh hiftory) I ihall only add, that the Irifh name for a fword, is cliy cliabh^ cUath & clidamh ; ^\l oriental words^ as in Hebrew t^^ cli, Phoenicean ftljj claph, an, axe, nSjk clath, a fword j Coptick kekbin, an axe : — -from cliabh or cliav, 'is derived the French glaive, and the Welfb klodhw, a fword } and probably ca- Kburn, t;he name of the fwqrd of the Britilh king Arthur. The Irifli had ajfo the fcymeter or crook- ed fword, named airfepn j fo called from its repre- fenting the form of airbfe a rib : I have not yet feen one, but this is certainly the Thracian harpe or' harpen, i. e. brevis gladius in arcum curvatum.
(Juftw tipfius)
m t
" 4. -• i '<
Vol. iV. No. XHI. 1 PLATE
PLATE. VIII.
FIG. I.
1 S the bitt and headftall of a bridle^ both of brafs; it was found in the county of Rofcommbn, and is now in the College mufeum. The bitt is of extra- ordinary nesct, and curious workmanlhip: a cele- brated artift of Dublin, affured me, that it was im- poflible to make a better joint, at this day, than that of the center of the bitt. ' The curb and chains were of gold, but were fecreted by the peafanl; that found it. On the top of the headftall, an elegant pillar of brafs- is erefted, to which a plume of feathers was fattened. ' ^ .:
Fig. 2i Ifll a brafs fpur neatly wrought j in pof- feflion of the Rev. Mr. Archdall.
Fig. 3. A furprizing large fpur of iron, in the College mufeum.
Fig. 4. A brafs fpur of the College mufeum, the fliape is Angular, and by experiment, this fpur muft h2Lve been worn low on^he heel, in the ilq>ing po- firion here reprefented, the circular part being chamfered off within-fide, for that purpofe.
PLATE
J
Tuagh Snaighte — ^ — Chip Jfxei.
PLATE IX.
Represents- feveral- tools of brafs found in our bogs, called by the antient Irifli Tuagh-fnaighte, 6t Chip Axes, from the Chaldee f^\r^ tuach id ftrike, whence the Arabic Tufti, an iVxe. Multitudes of ftiefe inftruments arc daily dug up in Ireland, In this plate and the next, I have given the drawings of every fpecies I could coUcft. Some are in the Col- lege mufeum, but the greateft collcaion is in the polTeffion of the tiev. Mr. Archdall. Sdme were ulfed with handles, part of the wood adhering ftill to the bottoms of the fockets ; and thefc had loops for the convenience of taking them off readily to be ground; Thefe are all drawn of the fize of the originals.
Fig. I . Has a fquare focket ; this refembles fig. 2. taken froni' a drawing in the chief d'Ouvre d*un inconu ; fome peafants digging in Normandy, found as many of thofe in one fpot, as loaded a horle. Morif. Dela Roque, the Antiquary, was prc-
1 2 fent.
56 BRASS TOOLS.
fen;, he thinks they were Roouai ; £or^ tufB be^ ia hi^ letter to Mr. Hearne, ** you have juftly obferved thefe are neither arrow heads, or Britifli axes, or the heads of Roman Catapuks ; they are neither Gaulijhy Saxon or Danijhj nor yet facrificing hatchets ; and you juftly conclude, that although thefe kiftruments were not military arms, they were carried by the Roman foldiers for the exprefs purpofes of afhler- ing and chifleling the ftones, with which they faced the intrenchments of their camp.'*
Fig. 5, and 8. Are gouges or femi-circular chiffels; the fmall one has no loop, nor has the fmall flat chiflel ; thefe were for flight work, and had fuflici- ent holding on a wooden handle. Montfaucon^ properly claflbs all thefe* with implements ufeditt in architefture.
With fubmiflfion to Mon. Dela Roque, Mr. Hearne and Dr. Plot, thefe inftruments. are not Roman i they are neither Gauliflx, Saxon or Daniih, noc Britifli or Welih ; but the manufa£bire of an anti-* ent people that poflTefled thefe iflands and the Con- tinent, long before the Romans were a nation, or the. Welfl) arrived in Britain. For, as the ingeni- ous I)>r. Haviland obferves, * the migration of the Gpmerites, (the anceftors of the Welih) into Europe, i$ not^ related, as. planting colonies, and furnifliing th^.with inhabitants, but as a warlike expedition, as an invafion and irruption. They are reprefentB4 as conquerors, fubduing and driving the former inhaj)it^;s oijt, of their pofleflTion^^ or wjiere there was rp.om enough, incorporating with them j ai^4«
• ^ Dfffcrt. on the pepplW of Britain. ArchacoL V, i.
• ' ' as
BRASS TOOLS. s7
^ is always ufud with conquerors, tompelling them to obferve their laws and coftoms ; to learn and fpekk their language, and take their name. This feems to Mr. Havilatid, to be the cafe of feritain and the neighbouring continent. They were invaded and fubdued, and obliged to take the names of their conquerors, and to quit the original name of theii* family ; which, being by the fifence of hiftory wholly loft, was abforbed in the appellation of Celts, Gauls, Germans, &c. who having gotten poffefBon of the countrv, afterwards aflumed the claim t6 be the ahoripnes of it j whilft thefe who were really fo, might be induced to rcfign willingly their plreten- fions to it, and to change their names out of a va- nity, either of being thought the defcendants of the eldeft branch of Noah*s eldeft fon, rather than a younger ; or elfc from iniagining the appellation of a conquering, more honourable than of a vanquiflied hation And he further obferves, that Javan and his femily, c<ime into Europe ^bout four hundred years at feaft, before the Gomerians began their migration ; a period fufficient for ftocking all the fouthern and weftern parts of Europe with inha- bitants; he theft proves them to have migrated from Thrace and Italy to Britain, agreeable to the antient Irilh hiftory, explained in the Preface to this Work. Thefe are the people, thefe great Welfh an- tiquaries Lhwyd and Rowland, diTcovered by the names of places to have exifted in Britain before the Gomerites ; and thefe are the people, thruft by the WeMh into Mann, Ireland, and the Highlands rfiStotland; defttoying their records and monu- ments of antiquity, aud leaving them to cut each
others
58 BRASSTOOLS-
pthers throats, in the idle difpute of which natioii defcended from the other. In fliort, thefe are that inixture of Scythians, Phoenicians, and ^Egyptians, known by the Greeks by the name of Pelafgpi, who gave the name of Bruttan, to Britain, becaufe it jibounded in Lead ; and of Korn bhuabhal or Corn yuaval, to the promontory of Cornwall, becaufe formed like an ox*s horn ; who named feveral other pitDmontories in Ireland, lheep*s-head, wolf-head, mutton- ifland, cow and calf, &c. &c. . and the de« fcendants of thefe people are now fettled in Ireland, Mann or Mona, and thie north of Scotland ; fpeak^r ing their primitive language, and itill adhering to feveral oriental cuftoms, unknown to the reft of the weft em world - they are the ancien peuple pcr^ due of Monf. Baily.
Dr, Borlafe defcribes many of thefe trafs inftru- meiits found in Cornwall : he rejeds the opinion of their being Roman chifTels for cutting ftone, and fidopts Thprefby's of their having been the heads of offenfive weapons, originally indeed of Britifli in- vention and fabrick, but afterwards improved and ufed by the provincial Romans, as well as Britons. I believe the Britons did not trade with thefe to Herculanum, or to Carthage ; at both places they ar^ found in great numbers. The Doftor piques him? iclf on his obfervation, that none of thefe inftru? ments had been found at Herculanum: fmce the Doftor publifhed his hiftory of Cornwall, they have been difcovered there ; Count de Caylus, faw them and has given drawings of them, by which we are convinced of their form and fize, being exafi- ly the fame as thofc found in thefe Iflands.
Mr,
.rfJW
■h9t4
59
brafs
Vol.
fays, •nfive li in- irrefl: , be-
been . with en of Ddels. ^es of
as if nents emeii f that : Ro- nolds lixed nner, half much
uagh
pth
defce
inixrt
knov gave ^boxf yiiav
fox-IB
«
prt>n
fceru Man
ins '
the ' due
x:
thei oflFe: ufe<
i t.
Het
foul
ielf
mei
iXx
bee
and
con
BRASSTOOLS. 59
Mr. Lort has given a great variety of brafs inftruments found in Britain, in the 5th Vol. of the Archaeologia, he calls them Celts ; he fays. Dr. Borlafe faw plainly, that, as heads of ofFenfive weapons, they were too aukward to have been in- vented and fafhioned by Romans, and too correft and fhapely to have been the work of Britons, be- fore the Julian invafion. But as they had been often found in Roman ftations, accompanied with Roman coins ; he fuppofes them to have been of Roman workmanfhip, after the old Britifh models. Dr. Borlafe and Mr. Lort, had feen brafs cafes of Chefe inftruments, which fitted them as exadly, as if they had been the molds in which the inftruments were caft. I cannot conceive why thefe gentlemen hefitate to call them molds ; as a certain proof that they were manufa£hired in Ireland, where the Ro- mans came not either as friends or foes, the molds are found in our bogs : they are of brafs aUb, mixed with a greater quantity of iron, or in fome manner, tempered much harder than the inftruments : half of a mold is reprefented in the next plate ; it \% much tmrnt by conftant cafting of the hot metal.
Tuagh
Tuagh Snaighte^ ^Chip Axes.
PLATE X,
Fig. I. 2, 3, 5^ 6. 7, 8. 9,
Represent diflPcrent forms of thefe brafe inflruments found in our bogs. Fig. 3^ and 9. are fmoothed at the fides, and formed to fit tbe hand, being ufed without handles ; the reft were handled with cleft (ticks, part of the wood remained in the bottom qf feveral fockets. Fig* 4. is a fhtall iecuris, called by the Irifh a Searr^ to cut herbs^ acorns, miiletoe, &c. it has a double edge very fliarp.
Fig. 10, Is the half of a mold, ddcribed in the foregoilig Plate.
Fig. II. Is a chiflel of that fpecies of black ftone, called by the French piere de touche, or touch ftone J beiiig ufed by the Goldfmiths for trying the colour of gold and filver. This is in the College mufeum, moft of the others are in pofl'effion of the Rev. Mr. Archdall, in whofe coUeftion is alfo, the Coopers adze or axe, of brafs, reprefented at the up- per corner of the plate \ it has been much ufed, but from its form I do not think it is antique. Our Coopers ufe the fame inftrument, in barrelling up gunpowder,
Orneis
r
t
i
r
■
•r
1
R
inft fmc beii
hot
call
na&
1
for* I call ftor cole mu: Rc> Cbc per bu^ Coc
gun
i
miti^i^Jm^i^iJm^mmmm^ttm^mm^mmmmmm^^mmmt^^mm^mmmmmm^m
Omeis GhAomr^Implements of War.
PLATE 3a. ^Fig. I.
1 H E head of a javelin or dart, formed of a very bard black ftone^ very (kilfully wrought with a too! ; it is drawn of the fize of the orighial, in the College Mufeum, and is the largeft I Imve feen ^ fined to a fpear and thrown with force, this weapon muft have brought more certain death than a malket ball.
Fig« 2. An arrow head of the fame, oif the fize of the original ; thefe are found of the fize of one third of this ; the peafants call them Elf arrows, and fre- quently fet tliN&m in filver, like this figure, and wear them about the neck as an amulet agaii^ being aithadh or elf-fliot* The fcale will (hew the fize c^ the reft.
Fig. 3 and 4« Brafs fkians (fcians) knives or dag- gers } the handle of 3 is broken ^ 4 is caft in one piece, the rivets being either ornamental, or to ftop againfl the top of the fcabbard \ \y(0 fcin^ a knife ; Prov. xxiii, 2,
Fig. 5. The brafs head of a hunting i^ar> very jieat, c^led in {riib bugbean fealgach.
Fig.
62 IMPLEMENTS.
Fig. 69 7, 8, 9 and ip. The brazen heads oF Laineach-catha, or military fpears. Chaldee ^^^ lanek, a fpear. Another Irifli name for thefe is Roimhne ; thefe were thrown at the enemy, fo named from the 'Phoenician rima, to caft, jacere, whence nD*1 rimahh, a lance, Greek ^v^«(f«, Arab, rumh, and Latin framea.
Fig. II. The brafs head of a Tuagh catha, a general name for the war axe, from the Chaldee niD tuach to ftrike, whence the Greek thuein, the French tuer, to wound, to kill, and the Arabic tawur, a battle-axe or halbert ; the Irifh cath a battle, ikimiifh, compounded with arbhar, a hoft, forms catbarbbar^ commonly written catharb, as if contfaded of cath and treab, a tribe, bat it is undoubtedly the Syriac and Kioenician ttaiyrO catharba ; turiha mixtionis, is a bad tranflation of this word hy Botbart ; hence the caterva of the Romans. Perfic kaw^ warlike ; Khefh, war ; Arabic ketal or katal a iG^ldier ; whence the Irifh prefer name Cathal, by which they tranflate Carolus, quafi Cath-areolas, expert in war.
The Iriih had three names fior the Tuagh catha^ or battle axe, whether they were different weapons, or feyeral names for the fame, I cannot determine. 2(1, Tuagh deilfgiathanach, i. e. hipeimis. 2d, Tuagh deilbhealach, literally the axe that kills at the meeting of two roftds, before and behind, having two edges, and is probably the pic-meallach or mbealach, or Lochaber axe of the Erfc. The large rivets of this >veapon, ffiew it was mounted on a very ftrong fhaft. it was an excellent weapon for the defence of an Hitrencbment.
As the Irifh cath, is derived from the Hebrew rnrUK agioth, bellum quod ante urbem geritur, fo is
griom
O F W A R. 63
griom or criom, from the Phcemcian and Etrufcan
ti(Z3*^n cherme, i. e. bellicofo, e lo crede un fopranome
date dagli Etrufci a Perfeo * i hence the Iriih grim-
earbady cumis falcatus. Grim-cliath^ hurdles ufed in
iiegcs. Griamhuil, martial. Griamht, grit or greit,
a champion ; whence the proper name Garat.
^ Sronzi dc {Ircolano, vol. ii| p« 133. Goriy t. li^ p. 347.
PURIN.
^>irtM^k*i
Purin. — Seic Seona« — Cloch Tag,
PLATE Xn.
1 T is "with great rcludance this and the following plates arc introduced in this work : they were rcferved for a complete cflay on the religion, philofophy, and fuperftitious ceremonies of the Hibernian Druids, for which the Irifh MSS in my poffeffion, afford ample materials ; a fubjed moil defirable to the literati of Europe.
Purin was a fpecies of divination by fmall ftones or bones, in number five, fo called from the Chaldee •TID pur, lot, (fors) in the plural ]^li\Q purin. Eflher ch. ix. And they call pur to confume them ; where- fore they called thefe days Purim. P«r, a confrigendo, ex ufu Perlico, unde phors, fors & fortuna. (Plantavit.) This kind of divination, is known in Arabic by the word Makton, i. e. Ariolus, qui glareae, iUicumque ja&u vaticinatur. (Caflelus, p. 22 1 2.) It is now played as a game, by the youths of both fexes in Ireland. Niubur faw it pradlifed by the boys on the banks of the Nile, and thought it worthy of a full defcription. 3«hU Voyages.
It
PURIW. SLIC SEONA, &c. 65
It -wss named Scic Seana or Scoaay wfaea bones were ufed. 5^ is a bone^ a&d &aaa or feona^. di^ vijiationy chajrms ; he&ce feona a charm for peotec- tion ; feunta eiichaated ; fean'-aim, an ocder of the Hibernian Druids, or Diviners ; whence the Ladui Senones ; Chaldee 1^ fhiniu Arab, fenat, a myAery,. nvvacle ; Perf. fen holy. Gcarog is another IriA, word for Sora, and hence I believe the Calabdaa ZiAgari^ (i. e. Seangearog^) Gypfies, who are iuppofed to fpeak an Onental dialed * ; but certainly^ their name for a bag-pipe^ vijs. Cormali, is thelriflu cora mufic, and mala a bag ; the muiical bag.
'fhe Iriih Seic Seona^ (Shec Shona) was readilf turned inio j^ck-ftones,. by an £nglifli ear, by whick name, this gwkc is now known by the Englifh im Ireland*.
Cloch Tag is certainly the ftones of the Etrufcaa Tages ; it has another name amongft the vulgar, viz. gob ftones, becaufe one part of the ceremony is, to convey them into the gob or mouth.
In the memoirs of the Etfufcan academy of Cortona, is the drawing of a pifture found in Herculanum, reprcfenting a marriage ; in flie front is a forccrefe cafting the five ftones : this writer of the memoir juftly thinks flie is divining : the figure exadly cor** refponds with the firft and principal caft of the Irifh purin ; all five are caft up, and die firft catch is on the back of the hand, the drawing is here copied ;^ on the back of the handftahds one, and the remaining four on the ground ; oppofite the forcerefs, is the matron, attentive to the fuccefs of the caft.
*^ Swinbum!9 Tra?cl3)iotix Sicily. >
In
66 PURIN. SEIC SEONA, kc.
Ir the royal edition of the Antichi Monumenti di Ercolanoj vol. ii, is the copy of another marriage, and by the fame hand, Alexandros Athenaios. The attitudes of the figures differ from the former, and the forcerefs is calling five fmall bones, one is on the back of the hand, two in the a&ion of falling, and two are on the ground. The author informs us, the Etrufcans named this kind of divination AlioiTo and Tallone, in Irifh Ail-afe, ilones of divination > Tallon or Dall-on, has the fame meaning ; fee dallbhadha iii the didionaries. Afej Etrufca voce, fatum, fors, (Gori in the Eugubine Tables,) hence our Afer- lagbachd, and AU-neis^ &c. &c. This had dwindled to a game with the Grecian women, and is defcribed by Julius Pollux in his Onomaftici under the name of Pentalitha ; but from Valerius we may learn, it was a fpecies of divination ; no marriage ceremony was performed without confulting the Druidefs, and her Purin,
Aufpices folebant nuptiis interefTe.
Juven. Sat. xi«
The Etrufcan deities fuppofcd to prcfide over thefe matrimonial ceremonies^ were Pilumnus and Picum- nus ; the firfl is Latinifed from the Irifh phal or faly an omen, and muin oracle ; the fecond from pife, a diviner, and muin ; but, fays Gori, when Picumnus prefided at the marriage folemnity, he was named Pifo, probably it fhould have been pofa, the Irifh name for matrimony* The Irifh Pife, is the fame as the Syriac n»Dfl> the Chaldee KD**B» or KM' pifa, piifa, piza, i. e. fors ; Gr. **frr9% calculus, fcrupus luforius.
Homer
r
PURIN. SEIC SEONA, &c. 67
Homer fays, that the princes and chiefs who demanded Penelope in marriage, employed thcmfclves before the door of the houfe, at playing wu-0%t (Od. «.) The antient Etrufcans always were married in the ftreets before the door of the houfe, which was thrown open at the conclufion of the ceremony. The Druids of Ireland employed ftones on this occafion ; but on more ferious bufinefs, bones were employed ; the divination was then called Maitheas, that is, fay the gloflaries, Mait-fhios, or the fcience or knowledge of Maith. Chaldee FID math, pytho oifium cadaverum^ qui nempe magiam cum illis exercet, & fiitura ex iis prsedicit. (Buxtorf.)
N. B. Tages, was a proper name common to the antient Etrufcans, and to the Irifh ; as Tages an eminent Druid, father of Morna, mother to the famous Fin Mac Cuil or Finn Mac Cumhail.
THE
THE
CEAD RAI RE,
PLATE Xm.-^ — Fig. I.
1 HESE golden ornaments of the Hibernian 'Druids, are frequently found in our bogs : they rcpre- fent the moon at the firfl quarter, whence the name cead firft, rai quarter, or divifion. Re Moon. They were carried in the hand by the Druids in many re- ligious ceremonies, particularly when in proceilion to cut the facred mifsletoe, which was always per- formed on the firft quarter of the moon's age. Pliny fays it was on the 6th day of her age, ante omnia fexta luna, quas principia menfmm annorumque his facit.
This ornament is extremely well expreffed on a bas-relief, found at Autun, and was engraved by Auberi in his antiquities of that place. Auberi died after the firft book, and part of the fecond had been printed off; the work being then imperfcd, was fold for wafte paper ; there are very few copies now to
be
CEADRAIRE. 65
be found of what wa& fiiiifhed. Montfaucoii had one, which he thoagki the only com{^e copy in the wovtd : he has coined the engraving of the bas-relief^ and thus defcribes it :
^^ Her^ we fee two Druids ; one crowned with " leaves of oak, agreeable to Pliny's words^ Dniidias ** fine ea frondc nulla facra conficere ; this is pro-
baWy the arch Druid, hspving a fceptre in his hand;
Near him is another Druid, not crowned, holding
in his hand the figure" of the moon, fuch as fhe ** makes on the 6th day of her age. I think no one
can doubt, that thefe figures reprefent the Druids
proceeding on that ceremony. They were great ^^ aftronoiAers, an^ as it was efientially nec^flfary to *' perform it on the fixth day of the Moon'aage, an '^ aftronomical Druid here holds a crefcent,t0 fignify
that th^ &IUfval is arrived. This explanation of a
monum'^nt, ' hitherto undccyphcrcd, I expeft will •* meet no Von^adidion.*'
So for fr^pi contradifting the Reverend Father and Antiquary, I, perfeftly ajgree v^ him, and have copied the figure, cartym^ the ctefcent at Fig. 2.
The fcrupulous, awful regard, which the Druids paid to a few plants, as the Mifletoe, Samolus, and Sclago, which they accounted facred, and the extra* vagant opinion they had of their virtues, may be reckoned amoijg.the, greateft abfi^rdities of 'their fyfteni : yet in this they imitated the antient Perfians and Maflagetes,^ who thought the Mifsletoe fomqthing divine, as well as the Druids *.
cc
♦ Borlafe's Cornwall, p. 147. Hyde, p. 249, 255.
vVoi. IV. No. Xni. K: There
70 LUNETTE.
There is another kind of golden crefcent often found in our bogs, much refembUng the former, except that they have fmall buttons at the extremi- ties, and the blank part is radiated with a tool. I have feen one, that inftead of being tooled, vnt plait- ed like a lady's fan into nidii from the center.
The following figure will explain the firft kind.
One of thefe is reprefented in Moutfaucon, on the head of the great Sphinx of the Egyptian Pyra- mids; • another brokenon an Egyptian head. Vol 3. Plate 14; — but a perfed one may be feeii in that author on the buft of the Apotheofis of the emperor' Claudius, drawii from a Roman marble.; f the head is here copied at Fig. 3.
t Vol. 9. plate 119..
Tlicfe
CEAD RAI RE. ^t
Thefe were worn on the head behinch the terg, and by the Druids in their facrifices and other cere^ monies behind the oak-leafed crown, and f aliened with a ilring behind, looped to the buttoiis^ I have tried one of thefe oh the head of a man fix feet highy and it fitted well in that pofition. Xehophon^in' his' Cyrcpsedia fays, the Tiara was fomedmesr encom- pafTed with, the diadem, at leaft in ceremonies, and had frequently the iigufe of a half moon on it : others are of opinion, that the diadem was^ iii figure of a whol^ moon, aikl that from thence the Tiara wa3 called Lunetta ; Others again^ that the Tiara was in form of a half-moon. Pafchaliiis,. de Coronis^ diftinguiflies no lefs than five different kinds. The figure here r^refented, was probably the form of the Tiara, and might be defctibed by.fome as a half* moon, and by others as a full moon.
On this Plate, at Fig. 4^ is the drawing of a l^esiu- tiful brais vafe, dug up in the barony of Inis^ Owen, and county of Donegal ; this and the Lu- netta, are of the fize of the originals* The Rev* Mr. Marihall^ of the pariih of Fahan, thus defcribes the yafe 5 " In the year 1 769, in deepening a ditch along th,e highway, about three hundred feet from the church of Fahan, I found an urn of brafs open at both ends, with two ears of fnakes pretty v/ell wrought, about two feet under the furface of the earth, and near it, a ftratum of human bones about eighteen feet long and eight inches thick, and of uncertain breadth^' as', ^e did not open more than five feet wide/' This urn is now in poffeflion of the Right Hon. John Beresford; the outline of it is in the true antique Etrufcan tafte ; the ej^tremities of ^ • 1 K 2 the
7tt LUNETTE.
the haadtles are horfes heads^ extremdy well exe- cuted; it had three feet» formed of the beads of animals ; two are broken off; but has neither top or bottom. I conjedure it was ufcd, to coTer the burning incenfe on the . akar at lacriiices : it is cer« tainly the workmanfbip' of an expert artift*
The urns defigned to contain human bones, were of gold, filver, brafs, marbie or glafs, but general* ly of [tottery ware : among daiefaarfaaroiiftnatips^tbc;^ were of rude * fafliion^ andcoarfe clay^ and. rathos ftaoked than burnt, fudi as je^efeBM^ in Plate VL PaJTQclus's was of gold,.* .Corineus's of brafs, f but the ftetaluycurgus,. confined the. SpurtaAurat to die more fober drefs of dive and noyrtlei From ^ elegant form of our brais urn, I attribute it to ijie Etrufcan colony feom Cortbna, mentioned in the Preface.
The handles of this Vafe, are very fimilar to tfaofe of the brafs Lamp dug up at Herculanum, a city diat ende was pofieffed by the Etnxfcans*— On voit des morceau^ de chainettes tenant aux ailes de deux Aiglet adaj)tee« par le moyen d*une piece de m^lal aux deux cot^s de cette lanterile ; laqiieHe a auffi fon anfe en forme de col & dtt t^e de CixevaL— Cette Ville ayant €x.€ habitue, d^ Ics fi^lcs les plus an- ciens, par les Ofces^ & occupee depuis par fes^ Eiruji ques. I
*- U. 2.3. Tcr. 255. f ifin. a. vcr. '»ai$. t Rcc. Gen, Hiftorique Sp Crit. d' Herculao«, p. jSaad Hi.
Fainidh-
, /
« ».
*-r.
t : I
\ I
' !'■ ' ' I'r.' if-',-/.
L
- 1
»'•''■.
.>-
*f*
Fainidh-
^ttm^mmtmmmmmtm^mtimtmm^mmmtkttmtmmmtmata^mmtmM
Fainidh^Draoieach*--— -— Tair-Faimh.
Boil-Reaan, &c.
PLATE XIV.
JN O author^ unacquainted with the language of the £rfe and Iriih, and with the records of that amient people^ was better qualified to write on the tenets, rites and fuperitition of the Druidical religicm^ than the late Dr. Borlaie ; to great claflkal learnii^ and extenfive reading, he joined a knowledge of die Cornifh, Welfii and Breton dialeds, and his fituation was in the center of monuments of dut wonderful fe£k of Druids^ the wifdom of the common people, or veneration for the architeds that built them, have left undifturbed to this day. How infufficient the language and writings of the Welih, are to explain thcfe monuments, is plainly jH-oved from the Dodor's Hiftory of the Antiquities of Cornwall. From the authority of Caefar, he piques himfelf, on the inftitu- tion of the Druids being firji invented in Britain. Csfar was right ; Druidilm originated from diat mixed colony of Phoenicians, Pelafgians, Magogian
Scythtaiis, Etrufcans and Thracians, we have fliewn
• m
74 SAMOTHRACIAN RINGS.
in the courfe of this work, to have formed one co«- lony in the Britifh ifles. From them it defcended to the Gomerian Welih, who having conquered and expelled the primitive inhabitants to Scotland, Ireland and Man, retained but the debris of that religion, they fo much admired in their enemies. This will account for the Dodor's furprizc, that though the Welfh were of Celtic origin, in common with the Swedes, Germans, &c. &c. he was not able to find the lead traces of Druidifiu in any pther branches of the Celtic tribes.
Thefe primitive inhabitants, who gave a name to Britain, from words in their own language, fignifying a country abounding in lead, and to Cornwall, be- caufe a promontory, in form of a cow's horn, were not afhamed, (like the Britons) to promulgate the tenets of a religion, they thought pure and undefiled. Like the antient Phoenicians, ^Egyptians and Scy- thians, they acknowledged one true God, Creator of all things, omnifcient and omniprefent ; forbidding the ufe of images, they worlhipped the fun and moon, as the good and evil fpirits, and as the Cad-maol or facred minifters of Acfar, the living God; and under them they thought there were innumerable genii, or aerial beings, empowered to rule and govern all fublunary matters. This was the religion of the Phoenicians*, Scythians, &c. and this was the religion
^ We are very much inclined to think the fun and moon were the two great objedls of the worfhip of the Phanician^; they certainly once had a knowledge of the true God ; their idolatry and fuperftition were borrowed of the AflyrianSy Babylonians and Perfians ; how far they retained, or lofl, a due fcnfe and notion of the true God, is hard to determine ; and of their idols we know nothing particular. Eng. Un. Hift.v.ii, p.333.
grew
FAINIDH.DRAOIEACH, &c. 75
grew out of that mixt body, the firft inhabitants of the Britifh iflands, which had in fome meafure diffufed itfelf with its colonies into Gaul. It was not fur- prizing therefore, to find die Gauls in Caefar's time, referring to Britain in matters of a religious nature ; but from Britain, the appeal was made at that period^ to the heads of that order, the WeUh had thruft into Ireland and Mona, (iile of Mann.) Hence, when the Saxons, in their turn, had conquered the Welih, and driven them to Anglefea and Cornwall, where their Druids had re-eftablifhed academies and feminaries of learning, the conquerors declined feeking to them Ibr inftru£don, but fent their youth to the fountain head, to Ireland, for education.
Dodor Borlafe, was furprifed at the great confor- mity in temples, priefts, worihip, do&rines and divi- nations, between two fuch diftant people as the Britifh Druids and the Periian Ma^i. *^ Whence it could proceed, fays he, is very difficult to fay ; there never appears to have been the leaft migration, any '^ accidental or meditated intercourfe betwixt them, ** after the one people was fettled in Perfia, and the *^ other in Gaul and Britain ; and whether the Celts ^^ (much lefs the Gauls and Britons) can ever be ** proved to have been one and the fame people with ** the Perfians, fince the general difperfion, (which is a time too early to produce fuch a minute con- formity) is much to be quellioned. ITiis ftri£l agreement betwixt the Perfians and the Wcftern " nations of Europe, was too obvious to cfcape the notice of the judicious and learned Pellouticr j therefore he takes it for granted that the Celts and " Perfians were one and the fame people : — but this
** union
(4
j6 . ; SAMOTHRACIAN RINGS.
'^^ union mud have )>eea fo early, (for we have no ^^ tracks of it in hiftory) that it can only account for ^' an agreement in the eflentials of religion, which '^ in the firit ages of the world were few, fnnple and *' unadorned, and fpread into dl parts, and there ^* continued in great meafure the fame as at firft. ^^ We had our inhabitants from Gaul, as the neareft ^^ part of the continent to Britain, and with the in* ^^ habitants came the Celtic language, but dac Druids ^< had no beii^ when this ifland was peopled, their << difcipline being invented afterwards^ as is plain ^^ from the Gernnans, Danes, Swedes, and Ruffians, ^ who were branches of die Celts, and yet have no ^^ Druids^ ; they were a regular order of priefts, not ^< fetched from abroad, but inftituted and £3rmed at ^^ firft, eidier in Britain or Gaul, and peculiar to tbefr ^ two nathns'^ an order gradually £ftftioned and fliaped, pardy by their own inveittion, and partly from the adopted precepts of fome philofoj^rs " they converfed wiA, incrcafing in learning and " authority, age after age, till by its luxury in both, ^^ it attraAed die eyes and admiration of all the " curious and learned. To fix the aera of their an- *' tiquity, would be a vain attempt, and therefore «* I ihall only make diis general obfcrvation, that if ** the Druids were really Celtic priefts, they would ** have fpread with the feveral divifions of that mighty nation, and their traces would confequently appear equally ftrong, and lively in every country " where the Celts fettled, but as we have no warrant from hiftory to fuppofe this priefthood fettled an- ticndy any wherebutinGaul and Britain^ they cannot " befo antient as they arc fuppofed by the Germans.
"The
cc
FAINIDH-DRAOIEACH, &c. 77
*^ TbcDiwds were probably ol^ged to Pytlu^tasfot the define of tranfmigration and fome other particulars, aad as that great {diilofopher had been ^ a dMciple either of Zoroaftres, or fome of that ^^ Perfian's immediate fucceflbrs, there can be no ^^ doubt but he was leaned in all the Magian reli« '^ gion which Zoroaftres prefided over, regulated ^^ and ^tabliihed in Perfia ; it was with dus Magian ^^ religion, that our Drutds maintained fo great an ^^ umfonmty. Now we can well imagine that fo ^^ curious a traycHer as Pjthagoras, could foe induced ^^ to trarerfe almoft the then known globe, in order ^^ to converfe with Brachmaas and Druids. I would ^^ only obferve, that what is faid here, is agreeable to die general diara&er of that indefatigable phi- losopher. He firil travelled into ^fgypt to converfe with their priefts ; thence into the £aft, to bear the ^^ Brachmans,thepr]efts of India ; and it is not at all ^^ improbable, that his iniatiable curiofity would not '^ let him reft till he had feen alfo the other extremity ^* of die world, to contserfewith the Druids; gather- ** ing every where, what he thought divine, good ^^ and wife, and communicating the dofhrines he ^^ treafured up, where he found the people docile ^^ and willing to be wifer.
" ABARIS formerly travelled from an ifland ^' of^fitc Gaul, and moft likely Britain, into Greece, *' and renewed the antient league of fricndfliip with ** the Delians. Now this prieft of Apollo is reported •' to have been very indmate with Pythagoras, who ^^ made no fcruple to communicate to him freely ^^ (what he concealed from others in fables and
enigmas)
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78 SAMOTHRACIAN RINGS.
enigmas) the real fentiments of his heart, and the deepeft myfterics. ** In the next place it may be obferved, that the ** Phoenicians were very converfant with the Perfiam^ <^ and notfaingis more likely than that the Phoenicians, ^^ and after them die Greeks, finding the Druids *^ devoted beyond all others to fuperftition, fliould •* make their court to that powerfnl order, by bring- *^ ing them continual notices of the Oriental fuper- ^^ ftitions, in order to promote and engrofs the •* lucrative trade, which they carried on in Britain ^^ for fo many ages. The fame channel which im> ported the Perfian, might alfo introduce fome of the Jewifh and Egyptian rites : the Phoenicians traded much with ^gypt, and had Judaea at their ^^ own doors, and from the Phoenicians, the Druids ^^ might learn fome few Egyptian and Jewifh rites, *^ and interweave them among their own ; this is much more probable than that the Druids fhould have had their whole religion from iEgypt, as fome think, or from the Jews, as others with as little ** reafon contend."
This extrad from the learned Dodor's work, fupports the Irifh hiftory, whilft in my humble opi- nion, it tends to confute his own fyftem of the origin of the Druidical religion. Partiality to the Comilh and Welfh Britons, has carried the author to fuch a length, as to aiTert, that the Druids were an order of priefts peculiar to Britain and Gaul ; at the fame time, and in aln^oft the fame page, when he produces a long firing of fuperftitious ceremonies, in order to fhew the very great refemblanc^ betwixt the Druids and the Perlian Magi^ he is obliged to borrow
moft
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FAINIDH-DRAOIEAGH, &c. 79
moft of his traditions from the Irifh and the Scots ; yet not one word of the