Part 4 (2/2)

FOOTNOTES:

[24] _Hibernia_.--Chronic.u.m Scotorum, p. 3.

[25] _Tradition_.--O'Curry, p. 13.

[26] _Names_.--Four Masters, O'Donovan, p. 3.

[27] _Abraham.--_Chronic.u.m Scotorum, p. 5.

[28] _Years_.--Four Masters, p. 5.

[29] _Inver.--Inver_ and _A[=b] er_ have been used as test words in discriminating between the Gaedhilic and Cymric Celts. The etymology and meaning is the same--a meeting of waters. Inver, the Erse and Gaedhilic form, is common in Ireland, and in those parts of Scotland where the Gael encroached on the Cymry. See _Words and Places_, p. 259, for interesting observations on this subject.

[30] _Year_.--Annals, p. 7.

[31] _Ireland._--Ib. p. 9.

[32] _Annals._--Ib. I. p. 9.

[33] _World_.--See Conell MacGeoghegan's Translation of the Annals of Clonmacnois, quoted by O'Donovan, p. 11.

[34] _Maol_.--The Teutonic languages afford no explanation of the name of Britain, though it is inhabited by a Teutonic race. It is probable, therefore, that they adopted an ethnic appellation of the former inhabitants. This may have been patronymic, or, perhaps, a Celtic prefix with the Euskarian suffix _etan_, a district or country. See _Words and Places_, p. 60.

[35] _Ulster_.--Neither the Annals nor the Chronic.u.m give these divisions; the above is from the Annals of Clonmacnois. There is a poem in the Book of Lecain, at folio 277, b., by MacLiag, on the Firbolg colonies, which is quoted as having been taken from their own account of themselves; and another on the same subject at 278, a.

[36] _Hand_.--Four Masters, p. 17.

[37] _Reliance_.--O'Curry, p. 243.

[38] _Spears_.--O'Curry, p. 245.

[39] _Eye_.--There is a curious note by Dr. O'Donovan (Annals, p. 18) about this Balor. The tradition of his deeds and enchantments is still preserved in Tory Island, one of the many evidences of the value of tradition, and of the many proofs that it usually overlies a strata of facts.

[40] _Country_.--We find the following pa.s.sages in a work purporting to be a history of Ireland, recently published: ”It would be throwing away time to examine critically _fables_ like those contained in the present and following chapter.” The subjects of those chapters are the colonization of Partholan, of the Nemedians, Fomorians, Tuatha De Dananns, and Milesians, the building of the palace of Emania, the reign of Cairbre, Tuathal, and last, not least, the death of Dathi. And these are ”fables”! The writer then calmly informs us that the period at which they were ”invented, extended probably from the tenth to the twelfth century.” Certainly, the ”inventors” were men of no ordinary talent, and deserve some commendation for their inventive faculties. But on this subject we shall say more hereafter. At last the writer arrives at the ”first ages of Christianity.” We hoped that here at least he might have granted us a history; but he writes: ”The history of early Christianity in Ireland is obscure and doubtful, precisely in proportion as it is unusually copious. If legends enter largely into the civil history of the country, they found their way tenfold into the history of the Church, because there the tendency to believe in them was much greater, as well as the inducement to invent and adopt them.” The ”inventors” of the pre-Christian history of Ireland, who accomplished their task ”from the tenth to the twelfth century,” are certainly complimented at the expense of the saints who Christianized Ireland. This writer seems to doubt the existence of St. Patrick, and has ”many doubts” as to the authenticity of the life of St. Columba. We should not have noticed this work had we not reason to know that it has circulated largely amongst the middle and lower cla.s.ses, who may be grievously misled by its very insidious statements. It is obviously written for the sake of making a book to sell; and the writer has the honesty to say plainly, that he merely gives the early history of Ireland, pagan and Christian, because he could not well write a history of Ireland and omit this portion of it!

[41] _Pillars_.--The monuments ascribed to the Tuatha De Dananns are princ.i.p.ally situated in Meath, at Drogheda, Dowlet, Knowth, and New Grange. There are others at Cnoc-Aine and Cnoc-Greine, co. Limerick, and on the Pap Mountains, co. Kerry.

CHAPTER IV.

The Scythians Colonists--Testimony of Josephus--Magog and his Colony--Statements of our Annals confirmed by a Jewish Writer--By Herodotus--Nennius relates what is told by the ”Most Learned of the Scoti”--Phoenician Circ.u.mnavigation of Africa--Phoenician Colonization of Spain--Iberus and Himerus--Traditions of Partholan--Early Geographical Accounts of Ireland--Early Social Accounts of Ireland.

The writer of the article on Ireland, in Rees' Cyclopaedia, says: ”It does not appear improbable, much less absurd, to suppose that the Phoenicians might have colonized Ireland at an early period, and introduced their laws, customs, and knowledge, with a comparatively high state of civilization; and that these might have been gradually lost amidst the disturbances of the country, and, at last, completely destroyed by the irruptions of the Ostmen.” Of this a.s.sertion, which is now scarcely doubted, there is abundant proof; and it is remarkable that Josephus[42] attributes to the Phoenicians a special care in preserving their annals above that of other civilized nations, and that this feeling has existed, and still exists, more vividly in the Celtic race than in any other European people.

The Irish annalists claim a descent from the Scythians, who, they say, are descended from Magog, the son of j.a.phet, the son of Noah. Keating says: ”We will set down here the branching off of the race of Magog, according to the Book of Invasions (of Ireland), which was called the Cin of Drom Snechta.”[43] It will be remembered how curiously O'Curry verified Keating's statement as to the authors.h.i.+p of this work,[44] so that his testimony may be received with respect. In the Scripture genealogy, the sons of Magog are not enumerated; but an historian, who cannot be suspected of any design of a.s.sisting the Celts to build up a pedigree, has happily supplied the deficiency. Josephus writes:[45]

”Magog led out a colony, which from him were named Magoges, but by the Greeks called Scythians.” But Keating specifies the precise t.i.tle of Scythians, from which the Irish Celts are descended. He says they had established themselves in remote ages on the borders of the Red Sea, at the town of Chiroth; that they were expelled by the grandson of that Pharaoh who had been drowned in the Red Sea; and that he persecuted them because they had supplied the Israelites with provisions.

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