viz. the Hervi, Seghzi, Sogdi and Dravuli, are now become obfolete. The modern diale&t of Perfia is a strange mixture of Latin, Greek, German, Arabic, and Turkifh, (w) fo that no fatisfactory collation can be made with that and the Irish. We must therefore refer to the Arabic, Hindoftanic and Tibetan; the two latter have a great affinity to the ancient Irish, particularly the facred Dialects, or Sanfcrit. Quæ Indica apud Veteres appellantur, pleræquæ hodierne Perficæ convenire (x). Monf. Bailly and Father Georgius have therefore good grounds for afferting thefe people were originally Scythians, or according to Irish history Scythians mixed with Chaldæan Dedanites. The history before us is without order, though the Seanachies have not failed to fix the chronological events. It begins with the expedition of Partolan from Bithynia or Migdon to the Weft, three hundred years after the Samothracian flood. The defcent from Caucafus, or the Mountains of Rifad and the banks of the Cafpian Sea, which took place many ages before, is not mentioned till we treat of the Firbolg. This is a strong argument that these are the produce of tradition: But furely they are not to be defpifed on that account. What is every fpecies of ancient hiftory, the facred writings excepted, but mere tradition? the tradition of Pagan Priests, the inventors and propagators of error; and though the ground-work was truth, the finishing was the ornament of imagination. It is an indubitable fact, that the ancient Irish had letters, before the arrival of Patrick or other Christian Miffionaries. The Ogham infcriptions found in Ireland are the strongest proofs. This was the facred character, and in this the Priests condefcended to infcribe the name of a hero, or the event of a memorable battle: we must ever remain ignorant, I am afraid, if the records of the nation were transcribed in this character or not.-We find also many symbolical marks on monuments; but befides these they furely had a literary chara&ter. Euftathius (w) Jo. Scaliger. Lipfius. Gravius. Burtonus, Waltonus, &c, &c. (x) Leibnitz. tells tells us, the Scythians wrote with characters and emble. matical figures (x). The characters were probably Palmyrene; because in all the Irish MSS. I have seen, where the alphabets are preferved, there are careful delineations of the old Hebrew and Palmyrene letters, called by the authors Ægyptian; but on comparing them with the Palmyrene taken from coins by Gebelin, they will be found to be the fame. There are no MSS. of the Irish written in this character now exifting: There is no copy of the facred writings now to be found in the Hebrew letter; that now used is the Chaldæan: and, what is still more furprifing, there is no copy of the Bible now extant, written in the Chaldee, excepting the word Jehovah, which was in Hebrew: yet Origen mentions to have feen fuch copies. In what characters were the Infcriptions on the pillars of Hercules at Cadiz? Philoftratus fays, they were neither Ægyptian, Indian, or in any other character then known. (y) Or in what character was the doctrine of Zarduft written? probably both in the Ogham, which Gebelin and others think is the fame as the ignote letters on the Marbles of Perfepolis.-Quid, quod infcriptiones Perfepolitanæ, quæ adeo eruditas excruciaverunt, notæ quædam Hieroglyphice effe videntur, quibus Zarduft (Zoroafter) qui prope Perfepolin cultum fymbolicum condiderat, aliique Magi, præcipua cultus fui capita, profanum vulgus celare studebant. (z) Boxhornius and Monf. D'Ankarville are clearly of opinion, the old Greek and Iselandic, German or old Teutonic letters, in which all the Irish MSS. are written, were the ancient Scythian. Græcis litteris ufi funt Galli pariter & Germani, at non acceptis a Græcis, fed Scythis, a quibus & fuas Græci, Scytharum foboles, accepere. Notæ vulgares numerorum nihil aliud funt, quam litteræ Scythicæ. Indi eafdem numerales notas habent, fed habent a Perfis. Perfæ autem ortu funt Scythæ. (a) (x) Commen. in Homer, Iliad Z. p. 489. (y) Vit. Apolonii. L. 1. C. 1. (z) Cl. Millius Orat. de Fab. Orient. p. 77. (a) Boxhornius Orig. Gall, p. 106. See the Irish numerals collated with the Indian. Collectanea, No. XII. pl. II. L'Alphabet encore à présent en usage chez la plupart des peuples de l'Europe, remonte, à la plus haute antiquité: il eft meme anterieur à l'arrivée des Pelafgues dans la Grèce : Les caracteres Pelasgues, vû leur origine, devoient tenir à ceux des Hyperboréens, & comme on à découvert de nos jours, que les plus hautes Sciences furent cultivées avec le plus grand fuceès dans le pays habités par ces mêmes Hyperboreens, nous avons lieu de foupçonner que les monumens litteraires, detruits dans la Grèce par le deluge dont la tradition s'eft confervée, tenoient à ceux des ces peuples, & que les lettres Pélafgues, furent à peu près les mêmes dont fe fervoient les Hyperboreens. De tous les alphabets, auxquels on peut comparer celui des Pélafgues, il n'en eft aucun avec lequel on lui trouve plus de rapport, qu'avec celui des aneiens landois. Cet alphabet appelé Scytique, Danois, ou Rhunique, fut autrefois employé par les Goths. Rien n'eft plus fingulier dans les caracteres Islandois, que les lettres S & T : elles ont tres exactement, la forme de celles des plus anciens Grecs, ou des Pélafgues; mais l'une port le nom de Soi, qui de la langue Pélasgue, affurément originaire de Scythique, paffa peut-étre dans la Latine pour exprimer le Soleil diurne : & l'autre qui la fuit immédiatement, porte le nom de Tyr, qui dans la langue Islandoife fignifie Taureau (b). Les Caracteres Pélafgues antérieurs à Cadmus etoient donc ceux que Tacite appele les plus anciens caracteres Grecs. Nos lettres capitales font donc les mêmes que celles des Pélafgues & des anciens Attiques. That the Pelafgians were fouthern Scythians defcended from Magog, mixed with Chaldean Dedanites (c), we flatter ourselves has been ftrongly proved in the Preface to the XIIth No. of the Collectanea de Rebus Hibernicis ; (b) Recherches fur l'Orig. & les Progr. des Arts de la Gréce, L. 2. C. 2. (c) The Arcadians challenged the name of Pelasgi from their pretended founder Pelafgus, who did get fuch footing in Peloponefus, that the whole Peninsula was called Pelafgia. (Univ, Hiftor.) Our nicis; and, we truft, the Reader will be convinced in the following pages that Cadmus fprung from the fame ftock. Our Phoenicians did not always leave letters where they came; the ancient Pœni of Africa and the Baleares, both Phænician colonies, were ignorant of letters. Literas vero antiquiffimi Pœni in Africa quoque ignorarunt, & iifdem Baleares, indubia Phonicum colonia, caruerunt, videnturque pofterioribus temporibus demum in Africam illatæ. (d) But these old Poni and Phænicians were not Tyrians, as the Septuagint and the Greek hiftorians imagined; they were our fouthern Scythians, a maritime people that dwelt on the coast of the Red Sea, from Mount Cafius to Dor. Phoenice enim, & amæniffima erat regio & ob mercaturam ditiffima, quæ incolas affatim alebat. Hoc nomine LXX interpretes terram Canaan vocare folent ; propriè autem ita vocabatur ora illa maritima, in qua Tyrus & Sidon urbes commerciis olim florentiffimæ, fitæ erant; hinc incolæ Phoenices. Cl. Millius. Diff. de Terra Canaan, p. 130. Our Irish Royal Kalendar makes Plafg a Tuatha Dadann, or Chaldean Dedanite, viz. Anno ante Nativ. Xti 1896. Breas Eathlan Ned Ciolcaidh Blofg. or Plafg. (d) Horn, de Origin. Gent, p. 122. A VIN |