ed to pass the Gibon, or Oxus, and to reign in the Tranfoxane Provinces. Mirkhound writes, that the City of Mauaralnachar on the Eaft of Babr Khozan, i. c. Cafpian Sea, was built by Tour, from whom all beyond the Oxus was named Touran. Almed Ben Arabshah says, that Turqueftan was named from this Tour; but the learned D'Herbelot clearly proves, that neither was Turquefian named from Tour, or Iran from Irag', as the Perfians fabulously relate. The Arabs, Perfians, and Turks have always diftinguished the Northern from the Southern Scythians: by the name Jaguige and Maguige, or Gog and Magog, says D'Herbelot, they understand the fame as they do by Gin and Magin, or Tchin and Matchin; that is, the Northern Chinese and the Southern Chinese. See D'Herbelot at Magiuge. Hence we find the City of Magog in Syria, &c. Our Colony of the Magogians never went North of the Cafpian Sea, but extended from thence Southward and Eaft ward. And under the word Turk, D'Herbelot obferves, that the Arabian and Perfian Authors agree, that the Share of the Land that fell to Japhet and his Children, was from the Gordian Mountain to the Eastern Sea, and all to the North of it. The Perfians were Scythians, defcended from Mount Caucafus, they first fettled about the Cafpian Sea, then in Armenia, and finally in Perfia. The ancient history of the Perfians, is the hiftory of thefe Southern Scythians, the ancestors of the Trish. In the following fheets fuch strong likeneffes will appear, as to remove all doubt, that the tranfa&tions attributed to the ancient Irish in Ireland, were the transactions of their ancestors in Armenia, Pontus, Bithynia; on the Euphrates, the Perfian Gulph, the Coast of the Red Sea, &c. &c. That the fabulous hiftory of the Greeks is borrowed of the ancient Perfians, and is to be discovered in what is improperly called the ancient hiftory of Ireland. The learned Monf. Bailly has opened an extenfive field of knowledge in the Perfian history (p), proving (p) Lettres fur l'Atlantide,' them them to have been originally Scythians: We fhall here call in the authority of this Author to our aid "Vous conviendrez Monfieur, que toutes ces fables grecques resemblent beaucoup aux fables, qui font la première hiftoire des Perfes. La guerre de Moifafor, peut etre le modele de la guerre de Briarèe & des autres Gíans contre Jupiter: mais celle de Moifafor même n'eft-elle, pas évidement copiée fur la première hiftoire des Perfes, qui étant plus detaillée & plus fimple, montre qu'elle est la fource de toutes les autres, brunies par le tems, & chargées de merveilleux par la tradition? Ce même Hercule n'a-t-il pas delivré Prométhée, dévore par un aigle fur le Caucafe? No voilà-t-il pas encore Hercule dans cette Scythie, où nous retrouvons toutes les origines, exécutant fes exploits & portant fes bienfaits fur le Caucafe, d'où les Atlantes (q) font partis, ainfi que le culte du Soleil, & où les Perfes prennent leur origine & le commencement de leur biftoire? (p. 305.) Dès que les Perfes ont étendu leur empire jusq'æu pied du Caucase, ils ne font pas remontès vers le Nord, ils fe font au contraire portés vers le midi. Giambid a quitté les montagnes pour defcendre dans les plaines, où il a fondé Perfépolis. Je ne fai fi les idées nouvelles que je vous propofe répandent un preftige autour de moi mais ces conclufions me paraiffent de la plus grande évidence; elles me femblent plus fûres que la tradition & l'histoire même; car la tradition est souvent corrompue; l'histoire eft menteuse, la vanité nationale & tant de préjugés l'alterent! Combien les variations des langues, les équivoques des noms des peuples, les changemens des dénominations geographiques n'y ont ils pas introduit de notions fauffes !-Ce n'eft pas que l'ancienne histoire toute obfcure qu'elle eft, ne joigne quelques faits à la lumière de ces résultats philofophiques.-Toutes les guerres (de Perfes) avec les Dives ont leur theâtre près des montagnes de Caf, qui ne font que le Caucafe.-Ie ne decide point fi elles font relatives aux tems qui ont précédé ou fuivi (q) If M. Bailly's conjectures are right, that this was the original feat of the Atlantes, the name may have travelled with this ancient people to Ireland, le deluge; mais je vois qu'elles parlent tojours des montagnes de Caf ou de Caucafe. Je vois quels font les commencemens de l'hiftoire de Perfe-je conclus que c'est ou nord du Caucafe qu'il faut chercher l'origine des Perfans. (p. 209.) La langue du Hanferit ne vous a-t'-elle pas démontré, que les Brames font e'trangers à l'Inde ?-M. le Gentil ne vous a-t-il pas dit q'uils étaient venus du Nord? Les Scythes devenues trop nombreux par une popùlation exceffive, defcendirent de leurs montagnes dit Strabon, & fe jettèrent fur le roiaume de Pont, fur la Cappadoce; & Acmon un de leurs chefs, batit fur les bords du Thermodon une ville nommée de fon nom Acmonie. Il entra enfuite dans la Phrygie, il y batit une feconde Acmonie (r). Or, cet Acmon était pere d'Uranus, (le premier Roi de l'Atlantide) qui èpoufa Titée fa fœcur. Acmon, chef des Atlantes, venu avec les Scythes, & defcendu comme eux du Caucase, semble nous indiquer de chercher le peuple Atlantique vers ces Montagnes. (p. 112.) Monf. Bailly then proves the Perfians were defcended of the Scythians of Mount Caucafus. That the fabulous Perfian hiftory of the Dives or Evil Genii, and of the Peri or Good Genii, was no more than a distinction drawn between them and their Northern ancestors. That the Pishdadian race of Kings made war continually upon these Dives; in all these fables, the reader will find a ftrict conformity in the Irish hiftory. The Pifhdadians of the Perfians being the Tuath-dadanns of the Irish history. The Paras or ancient name of the Perfians are the Pharas or Pharfai of the Irish. Ces Peris font bons, (fays the learned Bailly) ils étaient puiffans, mais pour la bienfaifance. Je vois entr'eux & les Perfans une alliance & des fecours réciproques: ce fait eft décifif dans un tems óu les peuples étaient ifolés: ce font des colonies qui aident la Metropole voiez comme les Perfans ont exagèré la puiffance des Dives, qui ont (r) See Aghamon or Achmon. Chap. 1, of this Work, èté 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 observe, that the ancient Armenians and Magogian Scythians, from whom the Irish descended, having been one and the fame people, both named Eirineack, or Abiranach: it will not be furprizing to find, that the transactions of their Ancestors in Armenia, being either handed down by tradition or records, have been mistaken for the tranfactions of thefe 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 settling 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 cause 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. Golamh dies, and leaves his Kingdom to Heremon; the Armenian Gelam dies, and leaves his kingdom to Herman: " Gelamius Har"man genuit, et poft aliquot inde annos mortuus eft, id mandati filio fuo Harman dediffet. Mofes 66 cum "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 shall find, the Magogian Scythians, or Irish, to draw their descent from the Ancestor of Magog, or Japhet Gadul, whence they have to this day diftinguished themselves by the name of Gaduli or Gaadhal; 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 Irifh 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 History of the Irish, has arifen 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 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 first 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, |