correspondence *. Joannes de Fordun, certainly hints at this part of the Scythian history, where he fays, "ex variis quippe veterum fcriptis cronographorum intelligitur, quod gentes antiquiffimæ natio Scotorum, a Græcis & Ægyptiorum reliquis, cæteris mari rubro cum rege fubmerfis, primum cæperat exordium +."

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 discernible in the Greek 'Iántos, and the Latin Japetus, as Ham or Cham's name is in Hammon 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 Phliafians affirm, that Arans among them was contemporary with Prometheus the fon of Japetus, and three ages (or one hundred years at least) elder than Pelafgus, the fon of Arcas, or than 'Autoxoves at Athens. And Paufaniaus moreover obferves, that the Philafians had a very holy temple, in which there was no image, either openly to be seen, or kept in fecret. So, the learned Dr. Baugmarten, (after proving that Herodotus mistook every thing he had heard and faw of the Scythians) adds, "all we know of the real religion of the Scythians, terminates in the worship of the invisible deity: they admitted of no images, but, like the Magi, only made use of symbols: this is inconteftible from their punishing with death, without refpect of perfons, any one who was convicted of image worship. They certainly brought

*See Preface to No. XII.

Selden Jud. dex Script. Anglic.

three

three new divinities from Afia, and neither worfhipped them in images, nor dedicated to them temples, groves, or any thing elfe. And all the ceremonies pertaining to the worship of these three deities, may be comprehended in the word HAMAN, fignifying no more than a confecration or religious ufage *.

All

*Baugmarten's Remarks on the English Univ. Hift. vol. ii. p. 121. From this mann many of our great mountains receive their name. Take an old Irish fable ftill in every one's mouth of Sliabh-na-Mann mountain. They fay it was firft inhabited by foreigners, who came from very diftant countries; that they were of both sexes, and taught the Irish the art of O Shiris, or Ouris, that is, the management of flax and hemp, of cattle, and of tillage. They all wore horns according to their dignity; the chief had five horns. The word Ouris, now means a meeting of women and girls at one houfe or barn, to card a certain quantity of wool, or to fpin a quantity of flax, and fometimes there are a hundred together. Wherever there is an Ouris, the Mann come invifible and affist. When a Seiferac or ploughing, by joint ftock of horfes, is going forward, the Mann then affifts in fhape of invifible horses ;--but (add the monks) if the Ouris is begun on a Saturday night after twelve o'clock, or pursued on the Sabbath, the Mann moft affuredly will break the wheels, and spoil the crop. Compare this flory with Cumberland's explanation of Sanconiatho, and we shall find it to be his Meon or Ofiris, who invented weaving and ploughing, and Ofiris in the Chaldee was written Siran or Ciran, an old Irish name for a plough. (See Ben Uzziels Targum.) and in Irish Ois-aireac or Oifarac is a chief ploughman; and man in Heb. is a plough, (Aratrum) and hharah in Hebrew, is alfo to plough, a word not far diftant from our Ouris, but this word having no root in the Irish, may be written O-Shiris, the S being eclipsed, forms Ohiris; or as the vulgar pronounce it, Ouris. The Egyptian god Ofiris, fays Halloway, means, "the Giver of good things," and is derived from the Hebrew Hafhar, to be rich. Bishop Cumberland

All this perfectly corresponds with the doctrine of the Hibernian Druids; the three Afiatick divinities, I believe, were Dagh, Anu and Ceara, by which they fignified certain conftellations that influenced the Earth, and all was comprized in Mann, by which I have always understood they meant the invisible God, the all healing and all saving power, whose prefence in their Oracles, was named Logh, or the Etherial fpiritual fire.

Although you may truly fay with Origen, that before our Saviour's time, Britain acknowledged not one true God, yet it came as near to what they fhould have done, or rather nearer, than most of others, either Greek or Roman, as by notions in Cæfar, Strabo, Lucan and the like, difcourfing of them, you may be fatisfied. For although Apollo, Mars, Mercury, were worshipped among the vulgar Gauls, yet it appears, that the Druids invocation, was to ONE ALL HEALING OR ALL SAVING POWER.' (Selden on Drayton's Polyolbion.)

"And long before Cæfar's time, Abaris, (about the beginning of the Olympiads) an Hyperborean, is recorded for Belus's Prieft (or Apollo), among the utmost Scythians, being further removed from Hellenism than our British." (Malchus Vit. Pythagoræ. Seldon on Drayton.)

This Abaris we have proved from good authority, was an Hibernian Druid. (See No. 12. Preface.)

Cumberland fets thefe names in a very clear light, he fays, "When the Egyptians defigned to honour Ofiris, under 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 the Irish word co-mhanim, to dwell together.

The

The antiquity of the Pelafgi is equal to the times of the Affyrian and Egyptian monarchies (Cumberland). They peopled Sicyonia, or on the N. W. fide of Peleponneffus: This kingdom was firft called Ægialea, and Herodotus affures, that the Greeks affirmed, that the people of this kingdom were called Pelafgi Ægialenfes before Danaus came into Greece, and before Xuthus's time, whose fon Jon made them be called Jones. Now the beginning of the kingdom of the Pelafgi Egialenfes, is 1313 years before the first vulgar olympiad (Eufebius's Chronicon and Caftor's table of their kings by Scaliger),—and Ufher fixes it in the year of the world 1915, about the middle of the third century, after the flood..

Paufanias exprefsly teftifies that the people of Arcadia were all Pelafgi, and their country Pelafgia, before the time of Arcas, from whom the name of Arcadia is derived, (Pauf. Arcad. at the beginning). Now if we compare with him Dionyfius Halic. we fhall find that one Atlas, who formerly dwelt on Caucafus, was the first king of Arcadia; and Apollodorus informs us, that he was the fon of Japetus, and brother to Promotheus. And fince Diodorus affures us that the eldest Promotheus lived in the time of Ofiris, whom Cumberland has proved to be Mifraim, the fon of Ham, Japhets brother, we shall perceive that Arcadia is intimated by these Greek writers, to be planted about the third generation after the flood, not long after the planting of Egypt by Mizraim. But, the planters of it were then called Pelafgi not Arcades. Dionyf. Hal. affirms

*Herod. Polymnia, p. 214.

that

that the Pelafgi were feated in Argos, fix generations before they removed into Æmonia, and he modeftly intimates, that in many men's opinion, they were fprung out of the earth about Argos. Paufanias fays, that when Ceres came to Argos, Pelafgus entertained her in his house-but Ceres was Ifis, and Dion. Hal. fays, that Pelafgus was the fon of Jupiter by Niobe, the daughter of Phorneus, who was the first mortal woman that Jupiter embraced.

Again, the Pelafgi are allowed by all to have poffeffed Thefprotia, where the oracle of Dodona was founded, and this is confeffed to be the eldest in Greece: no matter by what means it was founded; Herodotus's story is, that when the Phoenicians prevailed in their war in Egypt, fo greatly as to come to Thebes, the metropolis of upper Egypt, they carried away captives two priesteffes, who founded the oracles of Jupiter Hammon in Africa, and that of Dodona in Threfprotia; this ftory, I fay, proves that there were Pelafgi in Threfprotis at that time. These fame Phoenicians or Pelafgi, built towers, and gaurs, or oracles, in Ireland and in Great Britain; but the history of these people in that island is obliterated; the art of constructing these was fo well known in Ireland, that Merlin perfuaded king Ambrose, that the stones of Stone-henge, were brought to Ireland from the utmoft parts of Africa by giants (Atach) and from thence to England.

Dionyf. Hal. fays, that the commerce of the Tyrrhenians perfected the Pelafgi in the naval art, which they would have long enjoyed, had they not been obliged to give it up to the Carthaginians. If the British isles were first discovered by the Carthaginians,