HERE did we come from? Our own historical remains, the credit of which will be fully discussed in a future chapter, point to the far East.

Herodotus is the first author who uses the word Kelt. Max Müller says of the Kelts the name is Keltic, and Cæsar states distinctly that it was so, when saying, Qui ipsorum lingua Celta, nostri Galli appelantur. al Newman says, 'The Sabins used a vocabulary which was akin to the Gaelic; nor, in fact, of all the Indo-European tongues has one so near a likeness to the Latin as the Gaelic has. The argument appears to be unassailable except by admitting a relation so close between the oldest Latin and the Keltic as to imply a recent divergency from a common stock.†

This Irish tongue, then, so 'banned and barred,' so despised, treated with penal prohibition, was simply the language of a considerable part of the Continent of Europe at the commencement of the Christian era, and for some centuries before. From whence, then, did the Celtic race come?

We have adverted principally to the philological point of view in connexion.

• Lectures on the Science of Language, vol. i. p. 225.

↑ Regal Rome. F. W. Newman, p. 19.

This is the opinion of the Irish tongue, as expressed by the most eminent philologist of this or any other age:

'Compositionis facultate lingua Celtica non cedit linguis affinibus, quæ ut Indica Graca, Germanica, ea maxime excellent, et longe superat eas quæ ut Indica, Slavica, eadem minus valent,'-Grammatica Celtica,

p. 818.

24

THE FIRST GREAT WAVE OF CELTIC IMMIGRATION.

with our origin, because those who are sceptical as to our own records cannot question the conclusions of English and German scholars. Comparative philology shows that all the colonizers of ancient Ireland were of Eastern and Keltic origin.

Sir William Wilde says:-'Now all these peoples-those who came with Partholan, the Fomorians, Nemedians, Tuatha De Dananns, Firbolgs,* Milesians-the patriotic navigator along our coasts, the Mid-Europe primitive shepherd and cultivator, the northern warrior, and the Iberian ruler, were, according to my (Sir William's) view, all derived from one Keltic stock. They spoke the same language, and their descendants do so still. When they acquired a knowledge of letters, they transmitted their history through the Irish language. No doubt they fused; but somehow a quicker fusion of races has not been the general characteristic of the people of this country. Unlike the Anglo-Normans, in later times, the Milesian was a long way from home; the rough sea of the Bay of Biscay rolled between him and his previous habitat; and if he became an absentee, he was not likely to find much of his possessions on his return. . . . We find but "one language" among the Irish people until the arrival of the Anglo-Normans, at the end of the twelfth century.

'The linguistic or philological evidence on this subject is clearly decisive. The name of each migrating colony is Gaelic. The residue of the early races already described spoke one language called Gaelic; so did the Scotch, the Welsh and, probably, in early times, the Britons and the Bretons. It was the only popular conversational tongue used in the ordinary intercourse of life, but it was also employed in genealogies, annals, and other records in a special character, not quite peculiar to this country, but then common in Europe.'

When the first great wave of Celtic immigration swept into Europe we cannot tell. It is generally believed that the origin of the Indo-European family was in the north-eastern part of the Iranian plateau, near the Hindu-koh Mountains, something like two thousand years before Christ. The Sanskrit speaking tribes settled in the fertile districts of the Ganges.†

At some remote period the Aryan language was split into two dialects before immigration had commenced. The Low Aryan was the primitive tongue, and was spoken by those who lived in the Asiatic plains. The High Aryan was the dialect of the hardy mountaineers who were probably driven up the hills by over population of the low lands, before they were driven westward by the same cause. Sanskrit, Irish Gaelic, Latin, and the early Sabine speech or Umbrian, are dialects of the Low Aryan. Welsh, Zend, Greek, and Oscan, are dialects of High

* Firbolg-Fir means 'man;' bolg, of bogs. Fomorians-'fog,' booty; mara of the sea. Even at the present day sea bathers are called 'Foghmaires' in Clare and Galway.

+ 'Originally, the Aryan tongue was the language of the leading classes on the high table land of Persia,

who at length divided at difficult periods, one-half going east, into Hindostan, and the other into Europe. Gaelic, therefore, as the earliest in the immigration westward, was one of the oldest branches of this ancient family.'-Professor Blackie's speech, delivered in the Museum of Science and Art, Edinburgh, 1872.

LOW ARYAN AND HIGH ARYAN-IRISH DERIVED FROM HIGH ARYAN. 25

Aryan. The Pelasgians were Low Aryan. The next wave of immigrants, the Hellenes, progenitors of the Greeks, were High Aryan, and the various European languages derived from this source are called Indo-European or Aryan Langus, and are thus divided:

KELTIC.

Gaedhelic-Irish-Gaelic, Manx Armorican, Cymric, Welsh, Old Cornish.

ITALIC, OR ROMANIC.

Old Latin Dialects.-Oscan, Umbrian, Latin; and from Latin have sprung the Romanic languages-Italian, Langue d'Oc (dead), Langue d'il, French, Spanish, Portuguese, Roumanish, Wallachian.

HELLENIC, OR GRECIAN.

Ancient Greek Dialects.-Doric, Æolic, Ionic, Attic, from which have sprung modern Greek and its dialects.

TEUTONIC.

Low German.-Gothic (dead), English, Old Saxon (dead), Frisian, Dutch and Flemish, Platt-Deutsch. Scandinavian-Danish, Swedish, Norwegian, Icelandic, High German.

LETTIC, OR LITHUANIC.

Old Prussian (dead), Lithuanian, Lettish.

SLAVONIC.

Russian, Servian, and kindred dialects.

And in Asia we have

INDIAN.

Sanskrit and the modern Indian dialects sprung from Sanskrit, Hindi, Hindustani, &c.

IRANIAN.

Zend, Old Persian, Parsi, Modern Persian, Armenian, &c.

Now there is no ground for question, as the facts asserted in our annals show that the various tribes who settled in early ages in Ireland spoke the Celtic tongue. One and all immigrated through Europe from the East, and that this immigration must have taken place at a very remote period is also unquestionable, since it must have happened when the Celtic tongue was spoken in a considerable part of the Continent, long before many of the dialects given above had developed

D