for them phyfically; that they are the natural rocks of the foil, the earth having been washed

away by a deluge.

That excellent antiquary Count Caylus, comparing them to fimilar monuments in the British ifles, denies that they are the work of the Gauls, because fuch monuments are never found in the interior of France, but only on the coaft. Secondly, That these monuments give the idea of an established worship, to which the ancient Gauls were strangers. Thirdly, That they and the Francs were not accustomed to erect fuch monuments. Fourthly, That they were erected by a people, who were only mafters of the coaft, and that they belonged to a nation, that had a knowledge of the mechanic powers. He then fhews, that like monuments are found in Britain, and that these must have been erected by the fame people, who were prior to the time of Cæfar, for no one would be hardy enough to fay, the monuments of Britain were erected fince the fall of the Roman empire. (Caylus, Vol. V.).

Since the publication of my Vindication, our learned countrymen in the East have wrought with zeal in the rich mine of Brahminical history: every volume of that learned body brings fresh proof of the veracity of the history of ancient Ireland. Emigrating colonies never change their names: ftrangers may impose others, but the original name is hereditary; Eirin in the Weft, is the fame as Iran in the Eaft. Phail, another name of Ireland, is the fame as Pali in the Eaft. It is an observation of Camden, that, if you run over the names of ancient and modern nations, you will find that every nation is differently named by others, and by itself.

The most ancient colonies of this island denominated themselves Aiteac-Coti, Aire-Coti, and Phaili, defcended from Magog, which is the fame thing as if they had called themselves. Southern Scythians, or Indo-Scytha. The Arabs, Perfians, and Turks, have always diftinguished the Northern Scythians from the Southern Scythians, fays D'Herbelot, by the names Faguige and Maguige, or Gog and Magog, by which they understood the fame as they do by Gin and Magin, or Tchin and Matchin, that is, the Northern Chinese and the Southern Chinefe.

Aiteac-Coti and Aire-Coti fignify royal fhepherds, Phaili fhepherds, whence Ireland was called Inis-Phail or Fail, the island of the Palli or fhepherds, or sheep-pasture.

They were originally feated on the river Indus, in India Lymerica, or Indo-Scythia. The Indus they denominated Soor, or the facred water,* a name it preserves to this day; a name they gave to the Suir in this country. Sean-ain, i. e. the facred water, now the Shannon, was another Ganges, to the Aire-Coti.

See Zour in the Zendavefta, p. xlvi. Pref.

They

They were the ancient Cuthi, Pali, or fhepherds of Iran or Indo-Scythia, otherwife Armenia, where they mixed with the Bologues, a nation of Perfians, (The Baloches, fays Mr. Wilford, in his defcription of Caucafus, feem to be the remains of fome colony of Tartarian origin.) with the Dedanites of Chaldæa, and with the Omanite Arabians of the Perfian Gulph, forming together a body of people, denominated by themselves Pheni, or warriors, and by the Greeks Phænicians. From Coti or Cuti the Greeks, and probably themselves, formed Scoti or Scutha,* whence Indo-Scutha, a name, as Mr. Wilford obferves, that had no relation whatever to Scythia.

All the country between the Indus and the Cafpian and Mediterranean feas, down the Euphrates, and along the Perfian Gulph, including Syria, Phoenicia, and India Lymerica, was anciently denominated ARMENIA. The eastern people, fays D'Herbelot, gave the name of Armenial to thofe nations, the Greeks and Romans called Parthians or Perfians (D'Herbelot). Confitendum erit a Judæis totam Scythicam, Armeniam vocari. (Goropius Becan. Indo-Scythica, L. 5.): this author muft mean Indo-Scythia only. only. See alfo Richardfon at the word Arminah, and Mofes Choronenfis. Therefore, when the Saxon Chronicle brings the primitive inhabitants of Britain from Armenia, and the Irish history from the Egyptian port of Tyre, there is no contradiction, for the coaft of Tyre was in Armenia.

In aftronomy and navigation our Aire Coti excelled: they had the art of fufing metals; of manufacturing linen and woollen cloths, calling them by the Arabian names; in fine, they answered the character of the Aire-Coti, given by Dionysius, Per. which has been tranflated by the learned Bryant in the following lines, beginning at V. 1088:

Upon the banks of the great river Ind

The fouthern Scuthe dwell: which river pays

Its watry tribute to that mighty fea

Stiled Erythræan. Far remov'd its fource

Amid the stormy cliffs of Caucafus :

Defcending hence through many a winding vale,
It feparates vaft nations. To the Weft

Th' Oritæ live and Aribes; and then

The Ara-coti, fam'd for linen geer, &c. &c. &c.
To 'numerate all, who rove this wild domain,

Surpaffes human pow'r the Gods can tell,

The Gods alone; for nothing's hid from Heaven.

Let

* Amarunt Græci & in primis oles præpofito S vocabula & nomina propria augere, ita Stephano tefte, pro Cimbri, Skimbri dixere. (Ihre de Lingua Scythica). S is a fervile in all the Oriental languages; and, in Irish, hundreds of examples will be found in this Dictionary.

Let it fuffice, if I their worth declare :
These were the first great founders in the world,
Founders of cities and of mighty states,

Who fhew'd a path through feas, before unknown;
And, when doubt reign'd, and dark uncertainty,
Who render'd life more certain. They firft view'd
The ftarry lights, and form'd them into schemes.
In the first ages, when the fons of men
Knew not which way to turn them, they affign'd
To each his just department; they bestow'd

Of land a portion, and of sea a lot,

And fent each wand'ring tribe far off, to share
A diff'rent foil and climate. Hence arofe

The great diverfity, fo plainly feen

Mid nations widely fevered.

Such," continues Mr. Bryant," is the character given by the poet Dionyfius of the Indian Scuthæ, under their various denominations. They were sometimes called Phoinices, and those of that name in Syria were of Cuthite extraction. In confequence of this, the poet, in speaking of them, gives the fame precise character, as he has exhibited above, and specifies plainly their original.

Upon the Syrian fea the people live

Who stile themselves Phenicians. These are sprung

From the true ancient Erythrean stock;

From that fage race, who firft effay'd the deep,

And wafted merchandize to coafts unknown.

"When these Scutha were ejected from Egypt, they retired to many parts, and particularly to the coast of Syria, which they occupied, under the titles of Belida, Cadmians, and Phanices. A large body of them paffed inland towards the north, under the name of Saca, who got poffeffion of Sogdiana, and the regions upon the Jaxartes;* their country was called Sacaia and Cutha.

"The poet Charilus has given a curious history of the Sacaan Scythæ, of whose ancestry he speaks with great honour, when he is defcribing the expedition of Alexander the Great.

Next march'd the Sacæ, fond of pastoral life,

Sprung from the Scythic Nomades, who liv'd

Amid the plains of Afia, rich in grain.

They from the fhepherd race derive their fource,

Thofe fhepherds, who in ancient times were deem'd

The jufteft of mankind.

"Yet

* Saca is fynonimous to Coti, from the Ir. fea, or shea, Ar. Shawa, a fheep, as will be fhewn in the Preface.

"Yet we find, that the Sace by fome have been reprefented as cannibals; from whence we may perceive, that people of the fame family often differed from one another."*

In like manner the ancient Irish, by mixing with the Danes and Norwegians, not only lost the arts, but their language, and became ferocious like their invaders.

Monfieur D'Ancarville, in his Enquiry into the Origin and Progrefs of the Arts and Sciences of Greece, traces the Sacæ ftep by step, as Mr. Bryant has traced the Coti, or Indo-Scythæ.

"The Sacæ, he fays, "were the inventors of arms and military drefs. The short fword, called fahs by the Saxons, fignifies the fword of the Sacæ; as with us (the French), bayonette and pistolet denote the fpecies of arms invented at Bayonne and Pistoia. Hence the Greek Zayn whence aya the fhield and the bag to carry it in; hence alfo ayes fagum, the name of a military drefs with many nations; hence fagitta, a dart, an arrow; hence Scutha, archers-Scythes qui primus arcus fagittarumque ufum inveniffe dicitur (Plin.).

"If as warriors the Sacæ invented arms and military drefs, fo as Shepherds, at their leifure, they were the authors of music and musical inftruments. The Eaxador of the Greeks derives its name from them."

To this we may add the clar-feac, or harp of the Irish, fignifying the music of the Sacæ; ccil-ar-face, contracted to clar-feac. Ceil, and ceal, fignifies mufic, harmony; ceilier, the harmony or finging of birds, from the Chaldee cheli, dulcis. Quare vocarunt Chaldæi tibiam Chelil? Quia cheli, dulcis erat fonus ejus. (Buxt.)

Let thofe, not fatisfied with the arguments I have used, to prove the ancient inhabitants of this ifland to have been the Indo-Scythæ of Afia, fhew, in what other manner the mythology of the Chaldæans and Brahmins could have been fo well established here. Let them fhew, how the names of Budh, Saca, Paramon (the founder of the Brahminical doctrine), could have been introduced into ancient Ireland, or how they came by the worship of Cali and Dermot, whose altars ftill are known by that name.

There are thofe, who ignorant of the language of the country, and of every other tongue, but English, Greek, and Latin, following Fornandes, will bring them from Scandinavia, clothed in skins and furs. I would ask these wise men, how came they by fo many terms of the civilized nations of the Eaft? If these barbarians were furnished with linen and woollen cloths by their European neighbours, how comes it, that these barbarians gave the Arabic names of aneat to the firft, and fuaite to the laft? When they trafficked, how came they by

-the

* Bryant's Mythology.

كلمي

the Hindooftance pyse and tuke (piofa, toic) for money, and the Chaldee gerati for the fame? When they were taught to write, how came they to give the Chaldæan names moun to a letter of the alphabet, and AB-gitir 7 N to the alphabet; cairt to a writing, Stair to a writer, and the Arabic tarik to a history or chronicle? St. Patrick did not teach them these names, nor, that the tree was the fymbol of knowledge. Who taught them to call the game of chefs caomaigh. pl. of caomai, armed men, men expert at arms, in Arabic kami; and cathar-anga, the four armies in battle array; and phit-cail, or fit-ciole, the army of Phit, which I take to be a proper name; and Beart-nard, the game of Nard? Caomai, an armed man, is the Irish name of the constellation Orion, and is doubtless the Kimah of Job and of Amos, as Coftard has afferted in his Ancient Aftronomy. Cathar-anga is the Chaturanga of the Hindoos. Chefs," fays Sir W. Jones, "feems to have been known in Hindooftan immemorially, by the name of Chaturanga, that is, the four anga's, or members of an army; it is called Chaturaji, or the four kings, fince it is played by four persons, representing as many princes.'

Phit-cail, or fit-chiolle, as it ftands in Shaw and O'Brien, from cail an affembly, an army, a body of men, a troop of cavalry; Heb. ↳p kahal, congregare se; in Arabic Jukheil: the armies of Phit. I know not the origin of the laft word, but it appears to be the Petteia of the Greeks. The ingenious and learned author of an inquiry into the ancient Greek game Petteia (chefs), fupposed to have been invented by Palamedes, antecedent to the fiege of Troy, clearly proves that it was of Scythian origin, invented by the Shepherds; that it had been long known among the Tartar tribes, who taught it to the Chinefe, with the Indian improvements. Nard is the Perfian nerd, the game of chess, draughts, &c.

نرد

To obviate objections to many words in Irish, fimilar to the Latin, I will here apply the words of the late learned Gebelin; fpeaking of the Irish language, he fays, "Dira t'-on que les Irlandois ont emprunté des Romains les mots, qui leur font communes avec eux, lorfque ces mots fe retrouvent dans les langues de la haute Afie, dans le Perfan le plus ancien, et aux Indes? Le pretendre ce feroit montrer le devouement le plus abfurde, pour des fyftemes dénués de tout fondement; ce feroit fe refufer à toute lumiere, à toute raifon." (Origine du Langage).

If by the study of the Irish language, I have thrown the leaft light on the ancient hiftory of these Western Ifles, a subject that has hitherto been much obfcured, I cannot think my pains mifemployed; and I have no reason to fet fuch a value on my labour, as not to think it

amply