èté vaincus par les Peris, &c. &c. (Lettres fur l' Atlantide. p. 103.)

My reader being now prepared for the ancient history of Ireland, we must obferve, that the ancient Armenians and Magogian Scythians, from whom the Irish descended, having been one and the fame people, both named Eirineach, or Abiranach: it will not be furprizing to find, that the tranfactions of their Ancestors in Armenia, being either handed down by tradition or records, have been mistaken for the tranfactions of these people in Eirin or Ireland; and the fame of the Expeditions of the Scythians into Iran or Perfia.

For example: when we find in Mofes Choronenfis the fabulous ftory of Noah's Niece, voyaging across the Euxine Sea, and fettling in Aburan or Eirinn, i. e. the Weft, we are not to be furprized to find the Irish Bards bring her to Eirin or Ireland; or when we find in the Annals of Armenia a people named Gein-Thonni, that is, Sea-faring men, from whom they fay, came Cadmus ; we are not to follow Mofes Choronenfis, and fay, these were Canaanites (from a popular notion, that Cadmus was a Canaanite); they were indeed Phoenicians, the offspring of Magog, among whom we shall find Cadmus in the fequel of this Hiftory, and the caufe of his being thought to have been an Egyptian. If the Armenians have their Gelam, a hero and leader, the Irish have their Golamh, which was a Cognomen of Milefius, the conqueror of Spain and of Ireland. Golamb dies, and leaves. his Kingdom to Heremon-the Armenian Gelam dies, and leaves his kingdom to Herman: "Gelamius Harman genuit, et poft aliquot inde annos mortuus eft, 66 cum id mandati filio fuo Harman dediffet. Mofes "Choronenfis," p. 34. " Hæ autem narrationes, feu "veræ funt, five falfa, nihil laboramus." Idem. p. 19. If the Armenians fay they are defcended of Japhetus Haig or Oig, that is, Japhet the Giant, we fhall find, the Magogian Scythians, or Irish, to draw their defcent from the Ancestor of Magog, or Japhet Gadul, whence they have to this day diftinguished themselves by the. name of Gaduli or Gandhal; and this was the most proper

name, because the facred penman gives him the epithet of Gadul 17, by which he means a man of extraordinary ftature. And Sem, the brother of Japhet Gadul. Genefis, chap. x. ver. 1. the Seventy tranflate it Japhet the elder; yet Mofes mentions him laft; but if eldest or youngest, the word 7 gadul implies great, magnum effe vel fieri. Goadal Glas oraidhtor Gaodhal, from baba Gadul Glaz, illuftris Gadul, the Irish derive their name of Gadelians. (Keating, p. 68. from an ancient poem). And the Pofterity of this Gadul-glas were called Scutha, for the reasons already affigned.

The general difguft to the ancient Hiftory of the Irish, has arisen from the ignorance of the Tranflators, who, zealous for the antiquity of their Country, did not, or would not fee, that the early periods of this History, related not to to Ireland, but to those parts of Afia their Ancestors came from. Thus in the third Chapter, we are told, one of their Chiefs fettled here 300 years after the Flood: without confidering that their Ancestors at that period were fettled in Bythinia and Paphlagonia, where hiftory informs us, a partial flood took place, (the famous Samothracian flood ;) the Bards and Seanachies explain this tranfaction, as an event that happened 300 years after the Noabatic Flood.

This Samothracian flood, as Diodorus obferves, was not a poetical fiction, but real truth, because pieces of Architecture were frequently found under water.

In the time of Auguftus, the Samothracians fhewed the altars that were erected over the Island, where the waters had reached, and where their Ancestors had retreated; foffile bones have also been discovered under this water mark.

The ancients were unanimously of opinion the Pontus Euxinus was only a Lake, which being overcharged with waters, broke first into the Propontis, and then into the Egaan, washing away by degrees the earth, which kept it within its firft bounds, and forming the two channels of the Bosporus Thracius, and the Hellefpont. They were alfo of opinion, the Palus Maotis, the Pontus Euxinus, the Propontis and Mediterranean were originally fo many

Lakes,

Lakes, which by the impetuofity of their waters, opened themselves a paffage between the Mountains of Atlas and Calpe into the Ocean. Hence the fabulous tradition in Irish Hiftory of the formation of all the Lakes in the kingdom, and the bursting out of the great rivers, which account has been defignedly omitted in the fucceeding pages.

These traditions are a confirmation of the early periods of their history; and if we can confide in Etymology, the ancestors of the Irish gave name to that Coast which had been fo torn by the Samothracian flood, and divided into so many Islands, as the Archipelago now abounds with, calling it in their language Aoi-goa (s) i. e. the Sea of Islands.

Mr. Whitehurst, after having proved that all Bafaltes are Lava, observes, doubts may arise with refpect to the origin of the Bafaltes or Giants Causeway in Ireland, fince no vifible crater, nor the least vestige of an extinguished volcano are now remaining, except the fubstances before mentioned, from whence fuch immenfe torrents could have flowed, as are now fpread over fo great a part of the North of Ireland.

These circumstances render it neceffary to observe, that whoever attentively views and confiders these romantic Cliffs, together with the exterior appearances of that mountainous Cliff, will, I prefume, fays he, foon discover fufficient cause to conclude, that the crater from whence that melted matter flowed, together with an immenfe tract of land towards the North, have been absolutely funk and fwallowed up into the earth, at some remote period of time, and became the bottom of the Atlantic Ocean. A period indeed much beyond the reach of any historical monument, or even of tradition itself.

"But though it does not appear, that any human testimony or record, has been handed down to us, concerning fuch a tremendous event, yet the history of the fatal Catastrophe is faithfully recorded in the Book of

(1) Aoi or Ai is an Island, a region or territory. Go, is the Sea,

Nature, and in a language and characters equally intelligible to all nations, therefore will not admit of a mifinterpretation: I mean thofe ftupendous Cliffs which environ a part of the Atlantic Ocean."

"Thefe are characters which cannot mislead, and the confideration of fuch difafters, together with that of the cause still fubfifting under the bottom of that immenfe ocean, almoft perfuade me to conclude that Ireland was originally a part of the island of Atlantis, which, according to Plato in his Timæus, was totally fwallowed up by a prodigious earthquake, in the space of one day and night, with all its inhabitants and a numerous host of warlike people, who had fubdued a great part of the then known world."

The fame obfervation is made by the ingenious and Rev. Mr. Hamilton, in his Letters concerning the Giants Causeway." The promontories of Antrim bear very evident marks of fome violent convulfion which has left them standing in their present abrupt fituation; and that the Ifland of Raghery and fome of the Weftern Iflands of Scotland, do really appear like the furviving fragments of a Country, great part of which might have been buried in the Ocean.'

To this let us add the tradition of the old Irish: They fay, great part of this land was fwallowed by the Sea, and that the funken part often rifes, and is to be feen on the horizon frequently from the Northern Coast. On the North Weft of the Ifland, this part fo appearing is called Tir-Hudi or the Country of Húd; that it contains a City which once poffeffed all the riches of the world, the Key of which lies buried under fome Druidical Monument. This is evidently the loft City of Arabian ftory, vifited by their fabulous Prophet Hud. See Sales Alcoran, Preface. On the N. E. of Ireland this refurging part of the island is called O Breafal, and corruptedly O Brazil. The Scythian name of the famed Atlantes, literally turned by the Greeks into Bafilea and O Serica, fignifying the Royal Ifland of the Gods. O in Irish, corrupted of Aoi, or Ai is an Island or territory: Breas is King, Prince, Royal, and Al is God, the Irradiator

and

and Breafal is Royal. O Saraichte fignifies the Island taken away by fudden force; but the former name O Breafil is pure Chaldee, viz. Ai Brazil, bearing the fame fignification as the Irish in Letter and Sense, viz. the Royal Island, a name probably introduced by the Dadanites of Chaldea, wih whom the ancestors of the Irish mixed, as will appear in the following history.

"L'un le nomme ile Bafilee, l'autre lui donne le nom de Ofericta, & ce mot comme pour appuier leur temoignage fignifie dans les langues du Nord, Ile de Dieux Roiale; l'ile Atlantide de Platon; l'Ogygie de Homere. (Bailly fur l'Atlantide. p. 368.)

Aoi-Breafal of the Irish Scythians would be written Barzelin or Brazilin by the Chaldeans Barzel, ferrum, forfan ex Bara, feparare. Chald. Barzilin, plur. funt Prafelli. (Thommaffin.) Here we have the derivation of the Irish Breas, a Prince, a person separated or diftinguished from the community. Barzel. Heb. Syr. est Parzel, forfan a Pharas, dirumpere. (Thomm. Caftell, &c.)

Having traced the Scythians, the defcendants of Magog, from Afia to Europe, let us turn our enquiries to the Geltes or Cimbri, the defcendants of Gomer, the other Son of Japhet. Here we fhall find fuch strong marks of distinction in every step, as clearly to point out in very few words that the Gauls and Cimmerag or Welch Britons, were a very foreign people to the Hiberni. That they had no connection with each other from the time the Hibernian Scythi expelled them from Asia, till their meeting many ages after in Spain, Gaul and the Britannic Ifles, where they had been seated fo long, as to be called Aborigines of those Countries.

The best Author on this fubject is Monfieur Brigande, who in 1762 published a small Pamphlet, addressed to the learned Academies of Europe, under the title of Differtation fur les Celtes Brigantes, printed at Breghente dans le Tirol.

"It is the unanimous opinion of all authors, fays he, "who have written on the origin of nations, that the "Celtes were the Children of Gomer, the eldest Son of "Japhet.