ed their fable on the Irish Story, true or false: it must furely appear to every impartial Reader, that this hiftory of Ireland is not the fabrication of illiterate Monks of the 9th and 10th Centuries; but that it was the hiftory of the people from whom they defcended in Afia, and the tradition brought with them into this Country. Nec mora: continuò vaftis cum viribus effert. Ora Dares, magnoque virum fe murmure tollit: Solus qui Paridem folitus contendere contra: Idemque ad tumulum, quo maximus occubat Hector, Victorem Buten immani corpore, qui fe Bebrycia veniens Amyci de gente ferebat, The learned Bochart, happy in most of his derivations, has certainly failed in that of Bithynia; he derives it from 2 beten, interior; whence it fignifies the womb as the moft interior part. The Geographical fituation of Bithynia will not allow of fuch an Etymon, two Sides of it being washed by two Seas, the Bofporus and Euxine.-We must not pass over the City of Pronectus in Bithynia, which Stephanus informs us, and Bochart confirms, to have been a Colony of Phænicians.Pronectus he derives from the Syrian Biranta, which is the Irish Bronteach, or Brainteach, a palace,-Пper Pronectus Urbs Bithyniæ prope Drepanem, quam extruxêre Phænices. (Stephanus.) Socrates writes the word Prenetos. Cedrenus makes it Prainetos. Factum videtur nomen ex Sy ro ro N בירניות Biranta; quod pro Caftro vel Palatio paffim occurrit in Paraphraftis. Sed et Hebraicè Birnajot funt Arces aut Caftella (1). Bronteac is compounded of two Scythian words, viz. Bran Princeps, Teach Domus; whence Brainteach a Palace. Arabicè Tekht, the Royal Refidence. Tak an arched Building, Tawkia roofing a house; whence the Irish teach a house. Some of the Perfian Writers fay, that Agamon was the first King of Perfia, the name in Irish fignifies excelling in battle; and fo Capellus has tranflated it. Achaemenes ipfo interprete, bellator bonus (Reland de vet. Ling. Perf. p. 109.) Aghimy, Perfam notat, aghim, Perfiam, unde Perfœ. Aghemian et Azjemian et Achemonii, Romanis Achaemenii. Alter Achaemenium fecludit Zeugmata Perfan. (Statius.) Videtur itaque quod apud antiquos Perfia dicta fuerit Achæmenia ut diftingueretur a Partia dicta Erak. Perfia a Sinu Perfico orientaliter, apud Autores alios vocari folet Achæmenia & Perfæ Achæmenes. (Hyde. Vet. Rel. Perf. p. 416.) Bochart derives the name from N Achiman, ad verbum Quis frater meus?-idem potuit effe cognomen primi Regum Perfo quem Græci vocant Achæmenem. Achiman, frater præparatus, vel frater dexteræ, aut frater quid? filius Enac, Numb. 13. Emir-glun Finn. Emir glaf. &c. Arab Amer a great man pl. Omra, kai is Synonimous whence Kai-Sru, Kai-Eafru, &c. (1) Bochart Geog. Sacr. L. 1. C. x. Glun, Glun, the knee, a generation, gus an treas glun, to the third generation; (O'Briens and Shawes Dict) Thus Emir gluin Finn in the Genealogical Table fignifies Emir of the race of Finn: the expreffion is truly Oriental, Gen. 30. V. 3. Go in unto her and she shall bear upon my knees that I may also have children by her et parit fuper (*) genua mea.-Targum. Pariat liberos quos ego excipiam, gremio geftem, fofcam & educem ut meas. Infantes fuper genua collocantur á nutricibus & matribus, gremio tenentur & geftantur (Schindler)-Can this be the explanation of the following verfe, Gen. 5o. v. 23. Etiam filii Machir, filii Manaffis, nati funt fuper (01) genua Jofeph-Targum. Quare me exceperunt, cum in lucem ederer, genua obftetricis incurvata; ne caderem? The Irish word Raigh, the arm from the fhoulder to the elbow-the thigh from the hip to the knee, has the fame fignification, whence Ruig, peperit, fhe brought forth, Raigh, Raighle gene ,irak and iraka ירכא & ירך ration : this is from femur, the thigh. Et filii ipforum egredientes femorum eorum, i. e. e femore eorum. Cantic. 7. V. 2.-The fceptre fhall not depart from Judah, nor a Lawgiver from his ( Ragil) generation, until () Shiloh fhall come. Gen. 49. V. 10. -Shiloh, the Irish Shiol the Son, i. e. the Meffiah. The Leabhar Leacain or Liber Lecanus, fays, that the Genealogies of families from the deluge to St. Patrick's time, were written on the knees, (gluinibh) and on the thighs lorgaibh) of men, and on the holy altars. (Leab. Leac. f. 14.) the meaning of which is, that the genealogies of the direct line and collateral branches, were engraved on the altars in pagan times. (m) The third Genealogical Table in the Irish Hiftory, is that of the Chaldæans, called TuathaDadann, being a colony or tribe of Dedanites, who mixed with our Scuthi, when feated on the Perfian Gulph. As we fhall treat of this people at large in the 6th chapter, we here only fhew the line up to Chus, according to the Irish tables: (m) Quære. May not this be the origin of those Infcriptions we find on the Thighs and Arms of the Etrufcan Figures ? СНАР. CHA P. II. AINM EIBERTEACCH N'ANEIRINN. "IN NIS NA FIODHBHAIDH, i. e. a Woody Ifland. It was fo called, fays the ancient fable, by Nion, fon of Pelus, who discovered it. REMAR K. A fable it certainly is, as relating to Ireland. The Irish history fays, Adna, fon of Bith, of the family of Nion, first discovered Eirinn, 300 years after the Samothracian flood. See ch. 3.-This woody island was probably one of the Ægean Iflands, fuppofed to have been formed by that flood. 2. CRIOCH NA FUINEACH. The territory of Fuineach, that is, fays Keating, the neighbouring country. REMAR K. If the author had attended to the original, he would have found a full and proper explanation of the word, viz. obheith a bhfuinead chrioch na tri rann don Domhan: ionan Fuine agus Crioch. Fuin Laidne Finis, i. e. from being the end or extremity of the three divifions of the world : Fuin fignifies End, Extremity, and Crioich Country. Fuine, in Latin finis. There cannot be a fuller or better adapted name for Ibernia, which is the Phænician tranflation of Crioch na Fuineach. |