A PASSAGE FROM DIODORUS SICULUS.

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first century, not only described but delineated the shores, lakes, rivers, tribes, cities and promontories of Ireland, with an accuracy which will be more particularly alluded to hereafter plainly insinuates that Marinus Tyrius was his principal source of information as to what he writes of that country, and commends this Phoenician geographer for having rejected some of the narratives of Philomon, as gathered from merchants that were in a manner incapacitated by their profession from scientific investigations. In addition to all these testimonies, the following passage from Diodorus Siculus is particularly worth attention :— 'Passing the Pillars of Hercules, he will treat of the island which lies more remote in the great ocean. Towards Africa there is a certain large island a considerable distance out at sea, and in the direction of the west, many days' sail from Libya. The soil there is fruitful, principally mountainous; it presents, however, no small extent of plain, and this excels in richness, being watered by navigable rivers which on every side pervade it. In this island there are numerous gardens, thickly set with a variety of trees, and orchards intersected with delicious rivulets; towns also, adorned with fine buildings, and houses of entertainment are found in the midst of the gardens. Here they enjoy the summer months, as the land offers every convenience for pleasure and luxury. The mountainy district has frequent and large woods, and various kinds of fruit trees, while on every side glens and fountains present themselves to refresh the natives in their mountain. recreations. In a word, this whole island is moistened with streamlets of living water. There is hunting of all kinds of beasts there, so that the plenty of game leaves nothing wanting to the delicacy and choiceness of their feasts. The sea also, which washes this island, abounds with fish. Formerly it was unknown, on account of its remoteness from the rest of the world, but it was at length. discovered by an accidental circumstance. The Phoenicians, from the very remotest times, made repeated voyages thither, for purposes of commerce.'

When the Phoenicians, having examined the immediate shores beyond the pillars, would have continued their discoveries along the coasts of Africa, they were carried out a great way to sea by a tempest. After many days' tossing, however, they put in at the island above-mentioned, and this led others into that knowledge of its quality and goodness which they had so first ascertained by their own experience.

Diodorus had his value as an author of undoubtedly high antiquity. He does, however, too frequently present that mixture of truth and fable which is at once the error and the evidence of an ancient history, and it is on this account he is only brought forward to fill minuter breaches in the line of proofs, that can sufficiently maintain their ground without his co-operation. Yet, when the passage, loose as it may at first appear in its bearings, speaks of an ascertained island beyond the Pillars of Hercules, of fruitful soil, but mountainy appearance, watered by numerous rivers, freshening with fertility, crowned with forests of all kinds of timber, encircled by a sea that teems with quantities of fish; when it attributes to the inhabitants of this island those hunting pursuits so peculiarly

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referred to Ireland by Bede; when it mentions the frequent voyages of the Phoenicians thither, in commercial pursuits, from the very remotest times, the Irish reader will be almost led to give credence to the sumptuosis ædificiis that so exactly agree with the evoca owpar of Orpheus, or at best only put them aside as surplusage that conceals from his view the picture of his country.

Thus it is hoped that as far as the limits of this essay would permit, the Phoenician colonization and subsequent intercourse with Ireland have been established, not only by similarity of language and the concurring traditions of every part of the British empire, but also by all the external testimony, Phoenician, Carthaginian, Greek, Roman, Spanish, and Portuguese, that could be reasonably expected for so remote a fact, and to which the ancient annalists of Ireland could by no probability have had access. He who is still a sceptic must look into the singular coincidences in the legends, the footsteps of Oriental intercourse in the traditions, and the legibility of primeval times in the manners of Ireland.* Then perhaps he will be more disposed to receive with favour, with evidences of early civilization which are now to be advanced, and if that civilization shall appear much attributable to Eastern intercourse, all must admit the necessity of dwelling so long upon this first preliminary proposition.

* How many vouchers of Orientalism even at this day survive in Ireland. The 'God save you,' 'God save all here,' which are the ordinary ejaculations at an Irish meeting, as well as those of God bless you,' 'God be with you,' at parting, cannot but remind the hearer of the 'God be gracious to thee, my son,' and other similar phrases of salutation and benediction so peculiar to the East. The hand joined in hand, so often recorded in Scripture as the seal of contract ; the May fires (which Mr. Maurice says are celebrated on the same day in India), and those on St. John's eve, with the incidental exercises of leaping through the flame, and the various instances of veneration for that element so curiously coinciding with those practices at the feast of fire, as mentioned by Sonnerat (Travels, vol. i., p. 154). The feasting and cries at

funerals; the partiality for the numbers, even evinced in the Churches of Glendalough, Clonmacnois, Lough. derg, &c., in the altars at Clonfert, Holy Cross, &c., and innumerable other instances in Ireland, so deducible from Oriental prejudice, to which, perhaps, we may be allowed to add, the free and liberal hospitality recorded in the Old Testament, recommended in the New, and still celebrated by every Eastern tourist; that hospitality which the Hindoos so beautifully inculcate by the proverb, 'The tree does not withdraw its shade even from the woodcutter,' and which, perhaps, could in its fulness only be once met with in Ireland. These, and various other parallel customs, some of which shall be noticed hereafter, seem clearly to demonstrate that Asia was the immediate cradle of the Irish people.

HISTORY OF IRELAND.

OPINION of the eminent Irish Scholar, Eugene O'Curry.-The English Settlers thought no scorn too great for Irish Records.-The Irish Druids possessed Books before the time of St. Patrick.-The Irish were great Patrons of Literature; and the Anglo-Norman Nobles who settled in Ireland.-Whence the Materials for Early History are derived.-The Lost Books and those which still remain.-The Cuilmenn; the Saltair of Tara; the Cin Droma Snechta; the Saltair of Cashel.-The Books that remain :-the Annals of Tighernach; the Annals of Ulster; the Annals of Innisfallen; the Chronicum Scotorum; &c., &c.-Description of the Books; their value and importance.-Poem of the Site of Tara.-Cuan O'Lochain.-Important Collection of Irish Manuscripts in Trinity College, Dublin.-Clonmacnois, home of the Annalist, Tighernach.-Literary fame of the Monks of Clonmacnois.-Monasterboice.-Erinn, correct form of.--Gilla Caemhain, contemporary with Flann and Tighernach.-Michael O'Clery and the Trias Thaumaturgus.-The Four Masters; importance of this work.-Kilnasaggert Pillar Stone.-Valuable Manuscripts still preserved.-The Story of the Táin, probably written about A.D. 600, by St. Ciaran of Clonmacnois; the Manuscript was preserved for hundreds of years at Clonmacnois.-Ailill and Méav or Mab.-The Heroes of the Táin [Tale].The Fight of Ferdiad.-Description of an Ancient Friendship.-The Heroes, Ferdiad and Cuchulaind. -The Story of the Tain, as condensed by O'Curry.

OF THE AUTHENTICITY OF THE MANUSCRIPTS RELATING TO THE
PRE-CHRISTIAN HISTORY OF IRELAND.

TREATING of pre-Christian Irish History, such persistent contempt has been shown that it is of the first importance for her historians to prove the value and authenticity of the ancient historical documents which still exist. And it should be remembered that, until very recent years, the very existence of these documents was generally unknown. The English invaders of Ireland settled, at least to their own satisfaction, that the Irish were a nation of savages, and held no scorn too great for them as such. To suppose that savages should have had a history and written records of it, was more than could be asked. Yet prejudice does not destroy fact, and never in the world's history was there a nation so cruelly persecuted for love of learning who so successfully preserved its records in spite of fire and sword. O'Curry

says:

'At what period in Irish history written records began to be kept it is, perhaps, impossible to determine at present with precision. However, the national traditions assign a very remote antiquity and a high degree of cultivation to the civilization of our pagan ancestors.

'Without granting to such traditions a greater degree of credibility than they are strictly entitled to, it must, I think, be admitted that the immense quantity of historical legendary and genealogical matter relating to the pagan age of ancient Erinn, and which we can trace to