CHAP. the widely extended race of the Scythians.

II.

We

also know that the Phoenicians, Arabs, and Chal-
deans, all spoke dialects of one cultivated language,
the Hebrew; and the Celtic tribes, howfoever bar-
barous, may have been originally of the fame great
race with these nations, and may have spread a thin
colonization through the European nations by land
and by wicker boats. The complexion and other
corporal characteristics, afcribed to the Celts, rather
favour than discountenance this hypothefis, for we
find fuch in the Arab or Hebrew race.
If com-
mercial factories have ever been established on their
coafts, and the druidic religion introduced among
the Irish, by the Phoenicians or Carthaginians, their
language might have thus received fome fmall addi-
tion of Punic roots. But if we could suppose, what
indeed appears very far from probable, that the
Druids had taught the Irish the use of letters and the
Phoenician tongue, we might thence infer a much
nearer affimilation of the written language of the
Irish to the Punic. Thus, while the vulgar oral
tongues of England and Scotland are diftinctly dif-
ferent dialects of Gothic, the written language of
the latter country is by adoption entirely English, by
which also is occafioned a much nearer aflimilation

of the oral fpeech. No other than fimilarity of
language could be admitted as a proof of identity
of origin in the Irish and Phoenicians. Such argu-
ments as that of brazen fwords of the fame kind,
being found about Cannæ and in Ireland, are too fu-
tile to deserve any ferious confideration; fince, be-
fide other circumftances, these weapons had been,
long before the battle of Cannæ, fuperfeded by

fwords

II.

fwords of steel among the Romans, Carthaginians, CHAP and other civilized nations.

The romantic hiftorians of our country have given Stories. us a lift of a hundred and eighteen fucceffive monarchs of Ireland, from Heremon, a fon of the imaginary Milefius, to Laogaire in whofe reign Chrif tianity here acquired an establishment. These are all, with very little exception, represented as having fallen by homicide hands, each by thofe of his immediate fucceffor; whence may be inferred a tumultuary state of society and government in the times when the authors of thefe accounts lived, who might by natural confequence have no idea of any other. In the writings of these, and the fongs of the bards, are some stories which appear to have allufions to facts, or fome foundation in truth. Thus, in the first or second century of the chriftian era, when we have reason to believe that bands of Scandinavians had formed fettlements in Ireland, we are told that Cairbre-Caitcan of the Damnonian race ufurped the chief power by the flaughter of the ancient royal family; but after an interval of a few years tive princes are faid to have recovered their former eminence of rank.

the na

A domeftic misfortune is faid to have befallen Tuathal Teachtmar, a monarch the second in fucceffion from Cairbre-Caitcan, which entailed a punishment on a large portion of the island. Eochaid, king of Leinster married to a daughter of this monarch, contrived by perfidy to gain a fister of his queen to the indulgence of his criminal paffion, which occafioned by grief the death of both thefe ladies. Their incenfed

C 4

CHAP. incenfed father had recourfe to arms, and impofed

II.

on the country of Leinster, for the crime of its chief, a perpetual fine, called the Baromean tribute, which was ordered to be paid every fecond year, and to confift of a certain number of cows, hogs, fheep, copper cauldrons, mantles, and ounces of filver, fome fay fix, others only three thousand. Whether Con of the hundred battles, a monarch fo ftiled from his numerous conflicts in civil warfare, had existence or not feems a doubtful point; but Fin Mac Comhal, the hero of Offian's poems, appears to have been a formidable chieftain of Scandinavian ancestry, to have married a daughter of Cormac Longbeard, the king of Ireland, to have commanded a body of troops called Fiona-Erion, in the latter part of the third century, and to have raised fortreffes for the defence or fubjection of the natives.

The tribes in Ireland of Scandinavian descent appear to have split into two factions, the Clan-aMorné and the Clan-a-Boifkene, the former thus denominated from a chief of that name, the latter from Boifkene, one of the ancestors of the hero Fin. This hero is fupposed to have prevailed on the two factions to fufpend their mutual animofities, and to unite with the aboriginals for the protection of the country againft new invaders. After his decease the colonists, under the conduct of his fon Oshin, aided by fresh bands of adventurers from Scythia, which then comprehended the Scandinavian regions and Germany, appear to have renewed their hoftilities against the aboriginals, in the reign of

Cairbre

11.

Cairbre Liffeachair, fon of Cormac Longbeard. In CHAP. thefe contests the ancient Irish are supposed to have in fome degree balanced the fuperior arms and difcipline of their enemies by their numbers, their extraordinary swiftnefs, and the faftneffes of their bogs and woods. Perhaps alfo the difunion and distractions of the aboriginals were balanced by the factions of their opponents under various leaders from various parts of the continent. The main forces of the two parties, the Scandinavians under Ofcar, fon of Ofhin and grandson of the great Fin, the Irish under a prince of Leinfter, are faid to have at length, in the fourth century, come to a pitched battle in the plains of Ardratho, where victory declared in favour of the latter, which at that time prevented the fubjugation of Ireland. Though the colonists continued mafters of the ports and coafts, the Irish princes appear to have regained confiderable power in the interior parts, especially if we believe the ftory of one, who, in the latter part of the fourth century, is reported to have been fo fuccessful in the fubduing of chieftains, and in the re ception of pledges of obedience, that he had the title conferred on him of Nial of the Nine Hostages.

CHAP.

11.

Religion.

CHA P. III.

Religion of the ancient Irish-Druidifm-Letters-
Christianity-Saint Patrick - land of Saints-
ancient Government of Ireland-Laws - Brebons
Manners-Raths-Duns-Hofpitality-Cofhering-

Fofterage-Bards-Food-Habits --

Hiftory-Lao

gaire-Hugh Mac Ainmer-Columb-Cill--Congall

-Clergy burned.

CHAP. WHAT fpecies of paganism prevailed among the ancient Irish is uncertain. Druidifm, the religion of the Gauls and Britons, more especially the latter, before the conqueft of these nations by the Romans, is reported in our traditional hiftories to save had place in Ireland, which appears not improbable. Of the druidic fyftem, which may have been imported by the Phoenicians from the Eaft, and of which accounts are given by fome writers of more learning and vanity than judgment or love of truth, very little is actually known, and that little can be collected only from Greek and Roman writers. It was doubtlefs a fyftem of profound mystery. Its priests, defignated by the name of druids, were forbidden by the inviolable rules of their inftitution to divulge to the laity any of their dogmas, or to commit to writing any part of their doctrines, which were compofed in verses merely oral, and treasured in the memory by a tedious course of study. Their places of worship were lonely groves, awful to the vulgar by gloomy fhades and religious confecration. For the oak tree

they