men have tried to clear up the mift that hangs over the early accounts of all nations, none has been fo generally approved in theory, or fo fuccefsfully applied, as that which makes identity or remarkable fimilarity of language, manners, and religious obfervances, its principal foundation. Both ancient and modern critics, proceeding on this plan, have made fuch deductions from very fcanty premises, as almoft challenge the certainty of ftri& demonftration.

The fubje&t, however, is by no means exhausted: in the extenfive field of etymology especially, there is ample room for every proficient in every tongue to exercise his industry as well as ingenuity. Whoever will be at the trouble of comparing the common Irish, spoken vernacularly at this day, in the western fkirts of Europe, with the languages of the Eaft now in ufe, and with thofe which for ages paft have been preserved only in books, will not eafily be perfuaded that chance ever produced the plain analogies that every where prefent themfelves to an obfervant eye. Chance may, and often does, produce refemblances; but whole tribes and fpecies of relatives and correlatives must have their foundation in nature, whose works are variously uniforin.

It is unreasonable to fuppofe, that the proper names of men, places, rivers, &c. were originally imposed in an arbitrary manner, without regard to properties, circumftances, or particular occurrences: we fhould rather think, that in the earliest periods, and especially where the use of letters was unknown, a name ufually conveyed a brief history of the thing fignified, and thus recorded, as it were, by a method of artificial memory; manifeft and numerous inftances of this are the Patriarchal names recorded by Mofes.

The poets were alfo the only hiftorians of the Heroic Ages; and they, imitating the former ufage, are full of epithets expreffive of remarkable qualities, properties, or local exploits. The first profe writers ftudied more to please after the manner of the Poets, than to inform their readers; and therefore are their works filled with improbable ftories, faid to be preserved by tradition, and with

extravagant fiЯions, chiefly calculated for amusement. Even the most approved ancients must be read with extreme caution, compared with others, and with themfelves, fifted by the rules of juft criticism, and fometimes fubjected to the fevere torture of etymological difquifition. (m)

After this conceffion, the most fanguine advocates for the authenticity of the ancient Irish monuments, ftill remaining, cannot take it amifs that we apply the fame touchstone to domestic as to foreign vouchers. By fuch analyfis perhaps fome rays may be admitted, whereby to discover" who were the ancient inhabitants of not only the British Ifles, but of a confiderable part of Western Eu* rope.

And this is not the only advantage we shall reap by fuch an investigation: many paffages, in the writings of the infpired penman, become elucidated thereby. (n) Religious customs and ceremonies, borrowed by the Jews from the idolatrous nations in the Eaft, are often expreffed by a single word, the true fignification of which is not to be found in the Hebrew, Chaldean, or Arabic languages: the fame words are frequently to be met in the Irish MSS. denoting the fame ceremony, and this fo described, as to leave no room for conjecture; for example, Samac, Smac, or Smag, in Irish, is the palm of the hand: at the coronation of a King, or the ordination of a Prieft, the Chief Prieft paffed the palms of both hands down the temples of the Prince or Priest, and he

(m) The Fasterns all wrote their histories in Ænigmas's. The Ægyptians had their sparixa's isopías, hiftorias Sacerdotales, and in every temple were uyural Interpretes, as Clememens Alexandrinus calls them. The Greeks imitated the Egyptians in writ ing historical Ænigmas.-Ullos inter Græcos, qui fapientiæ famam adepti funt, res non fermone perfpicuo propofuiffe, fed ænigmatibus involvisse, (Pausan. in Arcadicis.) Hiftory informs us that the old Scythi were remarkable for their Ænigmas and Hieroglyphics; the modern Irish writers not able to discover this mode of writing, have understood their Seanaches literally, and hence flow the absurdities in the Irish his. tory.

(n) Quis hoc crederet ut barbara Getarum lingua Hebraicam quæreret veritatem? (Hieron. Ep. ad Sunniam & Fret. fub init.)

was

ny.

was then faid to be fmac'd; hence fmacd or fmact, fignify authority; one fet over the people: crioch-fmacd a Government, from crioch a Territory; and, as a verb, fmacdam is to govern. The fame word is ufed by Mofes, when he put Joshua in authority, with the fame ceremo"And Joshua the son of Nun was full of the fpirit of wifdom; for Mofes 70 famach'd him, laying his "hands upon him; and the children of Ifrael hearkened "unto him, and did as the Lord commanded Moses." (Deuter.34. v. 9.) A fecond example is in the Irish word amarcall, i. e. Signum X, that is, the fign with which the Emir, or Noble, was anointed on the forehead between the eyes; it is the ancient Hebrew, Samaritan, and Irish X Thau; and hence arose the office of the Jewish Priests called Immorcalim, or Immarcalin. Thefe, and many other examples, will be fully detailed in the courfe of this work. (0) See Note A.

The annals of Ireland testify, that the ancient Irish were the descendants of Magog, confequently they were Scythians. As fuch they have been esteemed an illiterate and favage people. The Authors of the Universal Hiftory, to support a fyftem, and too closely adhering to Greek authorities, deny the use of letters to the Scythians; yet when they come to treat of the Tartars (the defcendants of thefe Scythians), they confefs, it is more than probable, that the Tartars had the ufe of letters, from the earliest times; and a modern author infists, that the Irish had not letters, before the coming of Patrick into the Island: the reader will and fuch undeniable proofs of the ancient Irish having had the ufe of letters, and of having been skilled in all the fciences of the times, as will leave great room to regret the destruction of records, monuments, &c. by our zealous Chriftian miffionaries on their arrival in that Ifland.

As Scythians, the inhabitants of the Britannic liles, prior to the final fettlement of the Cymmerig, or Walsh, from Gaul, were to be deemed a barbarous people. The

(o) The Coptic maroud, benedictus, is also the Irish fmaorod, anointed, Smeared in English.

modern

modern historian making no distinction between the Nomade or Northern Scythian, and the civilized or Southern Scythian of Armenia, has treated them as the Great Montefquieu has the Tartars, and drawn conclufions which are by no means fupported by their manners or their government. 'p)

Few circumstances, fays Mr. Richardfon, have been less attended to, by fome of our greatest writers, than a proper diftinction between the ruder and the more polished people who fill the immense extent of Tartary. Men totally diffimilar are grouped together under one indifcriminate character, merely because they are known in Europe by one general name. (q)

With the Greeks, all were barbarous but themselves. The Hebrews, whofe ancient Schools and Academies fhone in all the learning of the Ages in which they flourished, were yet barbarous in the eyes of the Greeks. Judæos barbarorum effe ineptiffimos: ideoque folos illos, nullum inventum vitæ utile, peperiffe. (Apollonius, ap. Jofeph. contra Apion).

(p) These Scythians, we shall shew from good Authority, formed the Perfian Nation, and are now known by the name of Touranians. These, fays Sir William Jones, are the Scythians of our ancient Histories who are faid to have invaded the Kingdom of the Medes about 640 Years before Chrift; but our best hiftorians are apt to confound them with the Scythians of the North. (Hiftory of Perfia, p. 45-)

The King of these Touranians or Scythians feems properly to have preferved the title of Afrafiab that is, Father of the Perfians: The family of Othman, who now reign at Conftantinople, are willing to be reputed defcendants from this King of Touran, and are flattered with the Epithet of Afrafiab Jab or powerful as Afrafiab. (Jones' Hift. of Perfia, 44.) But this Title there is reafon to think defcended to them from Phenius Pharfa King of Pontus, of whom in the following History. Phars from whence Afrafiab was the general name of thefe Southern Scythians, from their great Ancestor Pherius Pharfa,

ters.

(q) Differt. p. 146. It feems probable from Herodotus, that neither the Scythians nor the Thracians were unacquainted with the Affyrian let(Un. Hift. vol. XX.) A confiderable part of the Scythians had a body of laws, to regulate their conduct by, is attefted by Ephorus, (Item, Hiftory of Turks, Tartars, &c.). The Scythians have been highly extolled by Ephorus and Strabo, for their wisdom, juftice, integrity, and moft fublime friendship-it fhould feem therefore, that this people had not only an excellent fyftem of civil and religious inftitutions, but likewise a moft powerful motive to an obfervance of them. (Idem,)

The

The Spaniards, whom Strabo allows to have been a lettered people from an early period, were ftill denominated Barbarians, by the pedantic Greeks.

Grecia Ilamava Barbara a la gente

que fus Ciencias, i Ritos, no bevia, de que fingiò en Parnaso tener fuente. Roma, quando ufurpò la Monarquia, i junto con las ciencias, a fu Erario el Teforo del Mundo concurria. Al inculto Espanol fu tributario tambien le llamò Barbaro, i agora es nombre de ignorantes ordinario.

(Lupercio Leonardo. p. 74.)

In the following pages, if will appear, that the body of Magogian Scythians, of whom we treat, were a polifhed people before they left Afia; the first astronomers, navigators, and traders, after the flood, and courted by the Arabs, the Canaanites, the Jews, and Egyptians, to fettle among them. That, from their first fettlement in Armenia, they foon paffed down the Euphrates to the Perfian Gulph, round the Indian Ocean, to the Red Sea, up the coaft of the Mediterranean almoft to Tyre. The Greeks knew them by the names of the Phoenicians of the Red Sea, by Iahyophagi and Troglodyta in Scripture they are called Am Siim or Ship people, and Naphuth Dori or Maritime folks. (r)

:

These foon mixed with the Dadanites and Canaanites, allied with them, and were abforbed under the general name of Phoenicians; yet ftill among themselves were diftinguished as the fons of Japhet Gadul. These affertions the author of this Vindication thinks can be well fupported by facred and profane hiftory, and with great deference fubmits them to the learned reader.

(r) The Dori fettled on the Coaft of Gaul.-Aborigines primos in his regionibus quidam viffas effe firmerunt Celtas nomine Regis ambabiles & matris ejus vocabulo Galatas dictos; ita enim Gallos fermo Græcos appellat: Alii Dorienfes antiquiorem fecutos Herculem Oceani locos habitaffe confines. (Amn. Marcell. L. 15.)

The