There is certainly a great affinity between many of the words of the Showiah and Shilha and of

the Irish, yet the languages are very different; Í mean the languages spoken by the mountaineers of Africa at this day, and that of the Irish: the pronouns, inflexions of nouns, and conjugations of verbs, have no affinity with the Irish, yet there is great reafon to think, the languages were once the fame; at least, that the ancient Scythians, or Perfians, were the inhabitants of that country: We have fhewn that Togra, the ancient name of Tangier, is Irifh; this is fituated at one extremity of the mountains inhabited by these Shilha or Bre ber at the other extremity is Mount Atlas formerly called Dyrim. Extra Columnarum fretum procedenti, ita ut ad finiftram fit Africa, Mons eft, quem Græci Atlantem (Atlas) nominant, barbari Dyrim. (Strabo, L. 17.) Direme in Irish fignifies impaffable, and Ath-los, the fharp, or conical point, and this mountain was remarkable for both. Bochart derives Dyreme from the Phænician Addir, great or mighty; Dr. Shawe from the He brew Derom fouth; neither of these correfpond with the defcription of the ancient Geographers: it was steep and inacceflible. Mons nomine Atlas, qui anguftus & undique teres eft. (Herodotus.) And then he adds, & adeo celfus (ut fertur) ut ejus cacumen nequeat cerni, quod a nubibus nunquam relinquatur, neque æftate neque hyeme: quem effe columnam cœli indigene aiunt. Ab hoc monte cognominantur (Atlantes fcil.) hi homines. This defcription of Herodotus perfectly correfponds with our Irish Direme and Athlos.

CHAP.

The Fir Bolg, Fir D'Omnann, or Fir Galeon.

T

HE Records fram which Keating formed this Chapter, inform us, that thefe Scythians were named Fir D'Omnann, or the Men of Oman, that they were called Fir-bolg and Firbala, because, da gnitis baris do bolgaib, they made boats of the hides of beafts, and these boats being round, they were named Fir-Galeon: but Keating in the Sequel has followed an idle childish Story, unworthy of the hiftorian.

Simon Breac, Son of Sdarn, Son of Numed, landed in Greece: The Grecians jealous of their numbers, as they multiplied, oppreffed them; forcing them to fink deep pits (domhnan, fignifies deep) and to dig clay, and to carry it in leathern bags (bolg is a bag or a belly or paunch, or any thing fwoln out). The Numidians groaning under the Græcian yoke, refolved to quit the Country, and feizing upon fome Græcian Shipping, 5000 of them, under Simon Breac, put to Sea, and failed till they reached Ireland.

The last Prince of this race, married Tailte, daughter of Maghmor, a Prince of Spain; the is buried in a place, called from her Tailtean at this day.

The Rem Rioghre or Book of Kings, places their arrival in Ireland A. M. 3266, but the Liber Lecanus fays, fome of them came in the Reign of Ballafter, that King who faw the hand writing on the Wall, and from whom Cyrus Son of Darius took Babylon; and that they landed in the North

Weft of Conacht, at a place called Inbher Domhnan, from these Fir D'Omhnann (or Men of Oman).

REMARK.

We are told that this people were called Bolg or Bolo, from being the constructers of wicker boats covered with bo'g or hidest. It appears to have been a Veffel common to the Celts or Gomerites, as well as to the Magogians or Scythians, feated on the Euxine and Cafpian Seas. We have already treated of their conftruction and fhewn from Herodotus, that the Armenians came down the Euphrates to Babylon in this kind of Boat in

(†) In a fimilar manner the Afiatics passed the Rivers in the days of Mofes viz. by Rafts buoyed up with inflated Skins. Quomodo autem maximos & rapidiffimos fluvios trajecerint, & hodiè trajiciant, in Oriente artem habent facillimam per Rates quæ in S. Bibliis vocantur 1107 pays, quæ conftant ex plurimis colligatis Lignis, margini applicatis inflatis pellibus ad inftar Veficarum. Hac arte fit ut nullus fluvius eis obftet, & magna mercium onera per Tigrim & Euphratem facili negotio deportent, Hyde.) Κερατας vel potius Κεβλαραφσάδι

רפסדות Chibbel Ha Raphfoda Et חבל הרבסדה Hebraice dicitur

pro xedias 2d. Paral. 2. 15. i. e. tumultuanæ navis genere, quarum prima inventio debetur Phænicibus, (Bochart Geog. Sacr. L. 1. C. 27.) Καλά τέτον τον χρόνον, οἱ ἀπὸ των Διοσ. κέρων σχεδίας και πλοῖα συνθέντες ἔπλευσαν (Sanchoniathan the principal materials of thefe a Veffels were the Bela or Bolg the hides that covered the timbers, for a Raft of timbers required no other machine to float them. Thefe Rates or Rafts were made of the trunks of Trees, which in the Scythian Dialect are named Bol.-Bol, truncus, unde Bola eft diffindere & Bolwerk, opus ex truncis arborum confectum (Ihre. Lex SuivoGoth.) So that the name was applicable to these Scythians, if they conftructed their Veffels, either of Trees, or Wicker covered with hides. Baol Corium bovinum (Verelius Scytho Scandice Lex). Baelg, Saccus (id) Bulke Onus Navis (id).

his time. The Gomerites who traced the Danube and the Borufthenes out of the Euxine, and the Bolga or Volga out of the Cafpian, might have taken the name of Bolgi or Belgi, for the fame reafon; and carried that name with them into Germany and Gaul, as they did that of Brigantes, from Brigantin, a Celtic name for a Ship. This appears probable; because we find from Cæfar, that the Belgi, Veneti and Aquitani, on the Coast of Gaul oppofite to Britain, differed in their manners, cuftoms and language, from the Gauls, or Celtes, which would not have been the cafe, if the Belgi of the Coaft had defcended from the Belge of Germany: therefore the Belgi of the Coast must have been the Fir-bolg of the Irish. Lazius derives the name Belgæ, Celtæ, Galatæ, all from the Hebrew galim, i. e. inundatus. Galim, hoc eft Gualli, Walli, unde nimirum ob varias locorum pronunciationes, Celta, Galata, Guelga, Belga, vocabula prodiere: (a) these names he confines to the defcendants of Japhet only, because he was faved from the flood; why then were not these names common to Sem and Ham also ?

From the words of Cæfar and from ancient history, there appears to have been twonations ofthe name of Belga, migrated from Afia into Europe, and both feated at length in Gaul. The first, I take to be the Belge of Germany who proceeded along the Danube, and the Volga; who afterwards took the name of Brigantes from Brig, a kind of Ship ufed by the Celts: (See Introduction) formed the Celtic Nation, and were the Sons of Gomer, who took on them the fynonimous name

(a) Lazius de Gentium migrat. p. 12. I 2

Bri