To atone for my long digression from Mr. Whittaker, and hisbreakages, I will supply to you the derivations, as well of Britain as of Brigantia. The former is compounded ofBruit,tin; andtan, a country abounding in that metal, and corresponding toCassiteris, assigned to it by the Greeks: and Brigantia, as before explained, being but a formative from Breo-cean, is compounded ofBreo, which signifies fire; andcean, a head or promontory, meaning thehead-land of fires; or that whereon such used to have been lighted for the convenience of mariners lying out at sea.[484]
Neither the Scythians, therefore, nor the Celts, had connection whatsoever, either of them, with the once-envied celebrity of this “island.”[485]The latter were the persons who, under the name of Fir-Bolgs, erected all the cromleachs spread over the country, the accomplishment of which bespeaks, it is true, an acquaintance withmechanics, of which the present artisans are altogether ignorant. And as the original of their denomination has never been elucidated, I embrace this opportunity of supplying the omission. It comes frombolog, which, in the Irish language signifies apaunch; andfir, aman; so that Fir-Bolg means thebig-bellied man, being an evident allusion to their bodily configuration: and to this day Bolcaig is the epithet applied, vernacularly, to individuals of large girth or corpulent robustness, exactly corresponding to what we are told by Cæsar, when describing the tripartite division of Gaul, viz. that the Belgæ, who, in fact, were of the same stock as our Fir-Bolgs, were thestoutest bodied, and thebravest otherwiseof all its inhabitants.
The Scythian religion, which was Druidical, accorded with that of the Fir-Bolgs, which was Celtic—not less as to modes of worship, than in mutual aversion to that of the Iranians; and, accordingly, we find, that when both conspired for the recovery of this country from the Iranians, who had themselves wrested it from the Fir-Bolgs, antecedently, these latter branching out into the septs of Cauci and Menapii, correspondingto the kindred and cognominal tribes on the continent; and who, during the occupancy of the Iranians—the interval of Ireland’s Hyperborean renown—had retired to Arran[486]and the northern isles, were restored to a partnership in the possession of the island, in return for the assistance they lent the Scythians for its conquest: and this accounts for that diversity of races which Ptolemy records, but which antiquarian luminaries, unable to comprehend, took upon them to reject as altogether a chimera.
As to the Iranians, the real Hibernians—the true Hyperborean Tuath-de-danaans, or Magic-god Almoners—they were hurled from the throne, their sanctified ceremonials trampled in the dust, their sacred harps, which before used to swell to the praises of their Divinity, were now desecrated for the inspiration of the Scythian warriors; and their divineBoreades, who ere now composed canticles in adoration of Apollo, were degraded to the secular and half-military occupation of Scythianbards.
The name of the island itself, from “Irin,” or the “Sacred island,” was changed into Scuitte, that is, Scotia or Scythia, or the land of theScythians. Nor was it until the eleventh century of the present era, that,to remove the ambiguity which arose from the circumstance of there being another country also called by this name, Ireland assumed its former name, Irin, as its people did Irenses, instead of Scoti.[487]
Yet in the general transmutation which so great a revolution bespeaks, we behold the strictest regard paid to the literary fame and the mental acquirements of those sages who had been ejected. They were retained as theinstructorsof the new establishment; and their refined precepts tending gradually to soften the warlike propensities of this ferocious group, the amalgamation became so complete, and the aristocracy of intellect so recognised, that when religious dissensions were all cancelled in the grave, many of them were able to trace their steps backwards to the forfeited monarchy.
Of this number was Connachar-mor-mac-Nessan, that is, Connor the-great-son-of-Nessan, styled indifferentlyFeidlimidhandOllamh Fodlah, i.e. theerudite man(theBudhist) and theDoctor of Budland; and Brien, who ascended the Irish throne,A.D.1014; and who, after a succession of two thousand two hundred years, was the lineal descendant of Brien, head of the Tuath-de-danaans; and this very extraction, in the confusion of the names, was the circumstance which occasioned the popular belief, not yet exploded, of his having been the founder, by magic creation, in one single night, of those Round Towers of his inheritance! The mistake, however, is of value,as it is a collateral evidence that those edifices have been attributed to their real authors; and the anachronism will be excused, seeing that there is nothing more common than to assign to one Hercules the exploits of another.
Others of this colony, who could not brook the yoke, betook themselves on their downfall to Scotland, and built there the two round temples of Brechin and Abernethy, besides others that have disappeared; from thence, however, they were again dislodged by the barbarous Picts, and obliged to fly for shelter to the Highland fastnesses. These are they whom Macculloch and others have misrepresented as Celts. During their sway in that country, they called it also by the name of Iran or Eran, as the Scotch language is, to this day, called Irish, or Erse. The name of Scoitte,i.e.Scotia, was given it afterwards by the Picts, in compliment tothisisland, which had furnished them with wives, and otherwise joined their fraternity.[488]
“The Scoto-Milesians,” says Dr. Hales,[489]“reckon twenty-three generations from Feni an fear soid, ‘the Phœnician wise man,’ their ancestor, to Heber and Heremon, who established the last settlement from Spain, as observed before; which, at the usual computation of three mean generations to a century, would give 766 years from Fenius to Heber. But we learn from Coemhain, that the sons ofMilesius(this should have beenGallamh)[490]were coeval with Solomon, and that the Gadelians[491]came to Ireland in the middle of the reign of this illustrious prince,”B.C.1002, according to the Irish chronology. Counting backwards, therefore, from this date, 766 years, we get the time of Fenius aboutB.C.1768. And this agrees with sacred and profane history; for Joshua, whose administration beganB.C.1688, according to Hales’sChronology, notices “the strong city of Tyre” (Josh. xix. 29); which maintained its independence even in David’s days (2 Sam. xxiv. 7); and in Solomon’s (1 Kings ix. 11-14). And Herodotus, that inquisitive traveller and intelligent historian, who visited Tyre aboutB.C.448, saw there the temple of the Thasian Hercules; and another erected to him by thePhœnicians at Thasus itself, an island on the coast of Thrace, while they were engaged in search of Europa, the daughter of Agenor, King of Tyre, who had been carried off by some Greeks; an event, says Herodotus, which happened five generations before the Grecian Hercules, the son of Amphitryon,B.ii. sec. 44; who flourished about 900 years before he wrote, sec. 145, or aboutB.C.1348, to which adding 166 years for the five generations, we get the rape of Europa aboutB.C.1514.
“But the deification of the Thasian Hercules must have been after his death, which may make him contemporary with Joshua, or even earlier. Herodotus relates that the Tyrians themselves boasted of the remote antiquity of their city, founded, as they said, 2300 years before (B.xi. 44), which would carry it higher than the deluge. The high antiquity, however, of Sidon and her daughter Tyre, was acknowledged by Xerxes, king of Persia, when he invaded Greece,B.C.480; and in a council of his officers allowed her ambassadors the honour of precedence” (sec. 11).
He adds: “In order to determine the cardinal data of ancient Irish history, it is necessary to premise a synopsis of Coemhain’s System of Chronology.
“In this table, the first column contains the years elapsed between the succeeding events: thus, fromthe creation, 1656 years to the deluge; from the deluge, 292 years to the birth of Abraham, etc.; and their amount, 3952 years, gives the basis of the system, or the years elapsed from the creation to the vulgar Christian era. The second column gives the dates of these events before the Christian era.
“David began to reignB.C.1062; from which subducting 60 years for the amount of his whole reign, 40 years, and 20 years, the half of Solomon’s, we getB.C.1002, for the date of the expedition of Heber and Heremon to Ireland.
“This same number has been noticed by two earlier chronologers, Marcus Anchoreta,A.D.647; and Nennius,A.D.858; who both date the arrival of the Scoti in Ireland, ‘1002 years after the passage of the Red Sea by the Israelites, in which the Egyptians were drowned’ (O’Connor,Proleg.ii. pp. 15-45). The identity of the number 1002 proves the mistake in the reference to the exode of the Israelites, instead of to the Christian era, which depresses the arrival of the Scoti five centuries too low. For Coemhain reckons the exode 502 years after the birth of Abraham, orB.C.1502; from which subtracting 1002 years, the arrival of the Scoti would be reduced toB.C.500; or, following Usher’s date of the deluge,B.C.1491. O’Connor reduces it still lower, toB.C.489 (Proleg.ii. p. 45). Upon the superior authority of Coemhain, therefore, as a chronologer, we are warranted to rectify this important error of Nennius and Marcus Anchoreta, which even Dr. O’Connor has failed to correct; not adverting to the foregoing inference from Coemhain. But he has happily furnished himself the materials for proving the error.
“He states, that one hundred and eighteen kings of the Scoti reigned, till the arrival of St. Patrick,B.C.489 +A.D.435 = 921 years in all, which, divided by 118, would give too short an average of reigns, only 79⁄11years a-piece; whereas the true interval,B.C.1002 +A.D.432 = 1434 years, would give the average of reigns above twelve years a-piece; which he justly represents as the standard, from Patrick to Malachy II., viz. forty-eight reigns in 590 years (Proleg.ii. p. 45).”[492]
The date of the Scythian invasion, then, being fixed asB.C.1002, it is agreed on all hands that that of theTuath-de-danaanswas but two hundred years anterior, orB.C.1202;[493]with thisexactly corresponds the time at which Marsden, Kæmpfer, and Loubere date the arrival of the Buddists at Siam, viz.B.C.1202. Among the Japanese also, they are stated by Klaproth to have arrived not very distant from that era, orB.C.1029. Dé Guignes and Remusat suppose 1029 as the epoch at which they invaded China.B.C.1000 is the epoch assigned by Symes for their descent upon the Burman empire; andB.C.1029 is that fixed by Ozeray for their entrance into Ceylon; while the Mogul authors and the Bagwad Amrita (Sir W. Jones) recognise their appearance respectively atB.C.2044 andB.C.2099.
Now, the extreme concordance amongst the calculations of those various countries, one with the other, and their almost universal coincidence, nay,in the Siamese authorities, almostmiraculous identifications, with our Irish registries, as to the influx,amongst all, of this singular people, and their extraordinary ritual, makes us associate the phenomena with one common cause, and that was theexpulsionof the Budhists from India, the Rajas having proclaimed, at the instigation of the rival Brahmins, that “from the bridge of Rama, even to the snow-capped Himala, no man should spare the Budhists, young or old, on pain of death” (Guigniaud’s Creuzer).
As to the Mogul dates, and those of the Bagwad Amrita, they evidently bear reference to former colonies; nor arewe, in Ireland, without similar chronicles of an antecedent arrival, and precisely answering to the time of thefirst departureof the Tuath-de-danaans from the borders of Persia.[494]
It was, indeed, the tradition of this early invasion, long mystified by age, that we have seen so perverted at p. 385, for the sole purpose of effecting a miracle! Nor is this the only fable that fastens upon that narrative: we have that of Partholan and of Nemedius, and a thousand other reminiscences, all directing towards the centre of a common nucleus. TheEastis the point whither they all aim, and the era they assign is invariably that of thedeluge! Is it not, therefore, inevitable, but that the object recorded is our reception of the Tuath-de-danaans when ejected by the arms of their Pish-de-danaan rivals?[495]
Amongst the Easterns themselves we find corresponding traditions, wrapt up, as usual, in allegory, of this primordial departure. The Phrygians, who were one of the most ancient and considerable nations of Asia Minor, complain of Apollo having wandered from them, in company with Cybele, to the land ofthe Hyperboreans.[496]The costume of the archers upon our Knockmoy frescoes is strictly Phrygian, and confirms their testimony better than any written memorial! “Hercules,” says Cedrenus, “first taught philosophy in thewesternparts of the world.” This was our Ogham, which the Gauls had borrowed from us, as you will see by note, p. 420. “In Egypt,” says Ausonius, “they called him Osiris, but in theislandof Ogygia they gave him the name of Bacchus.” If we will remember the form under whichOsiriswas worshipped, viz. that of ourRound Towers,[497]and then recollect that the name ofBacchusis still found amongst our ancient inscriptions;[498]and in addition to all these, bear in mind that Plutarch[499]expressly designatesthe island, from its extreme antiquity, asOgygia, all qualms as to the situation alluded to by Ausonius must for ever evaporate?
Let us now glance at the institutions of this island, the personal appearance of its inhabitants, and their popular customs, as compared with ancient Persia.
To begin with theaspect, which often proves decisive in moreinterestingapplications, I refer you to our real figures at p. 330, as a fair outline of Irish contour; with this, if you will compare what Captain Head affirms, in reference to the settlers at Bombay, viz. that “theancientinhabitants of Persia were superior, not inferior, in looks, to thepresent,who belong to a hundred mixed races, which have poured upon that kingdom since the overthrow of Yezdijerd,” no disparity will present itself, at least in that quarter.
As toinstitutions, I will instance that of our ancient clans,[500]and place by them in juxtaposition what Sir John Malcolm delivers on the subject of Persia. “Jemsheed” (a prince of the Pish-de-danaan dynasty, founder of Persepolis, called after him, Tucht-e-jemsheed, which, in Irish, signifies the Couch-of-Jemsheed) “divided,” says he, “according to Persian authors, his subjects into four classes. The first was formed of learned and pious men, devoted to the worship of God; and the duty ascribed to them was to make known to others what was lawful and what otherwise. The second were writers, whose employment was to keep the records and accounts of the state. The third soldiers, who were directed to occupy themselves in military exercises, that they might be fitted for war. The fourth class were artificers, husbandmen, and tradesmen. The authorities on which we give the history of Jemsheed make no mention of Mah-abad; but, if we are to give credit to the Dabistan,the institution of Jemsheed can only be deemed a revival of that lawgiver.”[501]
In respect toreligion, Herodotus states that, “from his own knowledge, the Persians had neither statues, temples, nor altars, but offered on the tops of the highest mountains sacrifices to Jove, by which they meant the deity of the air; that they adored thesun, moon, earth, fire, water, and the winds, but that they sacrificed to theseonly from of old, according to ancient custom, and that they gave the preference to Trefoil, whereon they laid their offerings.”[502]
Now, two considerations are to be observed, as involved in this last quotation: one is, that the historian attributes the usages of this nation to two distinct periods of time. From ocular inspection, he avows that they had notemples, etc., because such were long exploded. Andhe knew not what to make of the Round Towers. Part, however, of the ceremonial appertaining to those edifices still remained, such as the worship of the sun, moon, earth, fire, water, and the winds; and “to these,” he frankly acknowledges, “they sacrificedonly from of old,” or in deference to the practice of their predecessors—I will not say forefathers.
Contemplate now the reverence shown to the herbTrefoil, ournational shamrock, and will you not see another link of that great concatenation uniting the two Irans, and triumphing at once oversuppositionand overscepticism? I have already deplumed St. Patrick of theserpentexpulsion; or, rather, I have done honour to his memory, by saving it from thefabrications ofpiousimpostors. I now continue my course of justice, by showing that he had as little to do with the veneration paid to this plant. It was worshipped in the Emerald Island, and imported, you perceive, by the Tuath-de-danaans, centuries upon centuries before the apostle was born: and the cause of this devotion was, not alone that it symbolised theTrinity, which was an article of Budhist doctrine, even before the incarnation of Christ, but because that itblended withit, in mystery as well as in gratitude, theAlibenistic cross, the seal of their redemption, and their passport to eternity! Here then are theshamrocks, orFree-masonic devices, upon the crowns of ourIrishkings explained; and those upon thePersiancrowns, by and by to be inserted, are similarly expounded![503]
Lastly, thefuneralsof the Persians—after the soul’s liberation from its tenement of clay, at the summons of its God—are described by Herodotus[504]with so striking a similtude, that you would imagine he had witnessed, and expressly referred to, the like scenes in Ireland.[505]
Oh! “if the human mind can ever flatter itself with having been successful in discovering the truth, it is when many facts, and these facts of different kinds unite in producing the same result.”[506]
In truth, the island was altogether anOriental Asylum,[507]until, for a moment broken in upon by theFir-Bolgs, or Celts. Their usurpation, however, was only that of a day, amounting, by all records, but tofifty-six years;[508]after which, a new army of the Tuath-de-danaans, driven now, not from Persia, but from India, by the Brahmins, laid claim to the sceptre to which their brethren had invited them, and reinstated themselves afresh in our kindred Iran.
It is not, therefore, you perceive, our individual history alone that is rectified by this investigation. It supplies a vacuum in the history of the world: which could not be said to have been correct,so long as there was nothing known on the various topics now explained.[509]
Professor Müller,[510]in a very elaborate treatise upon theAntiquities of the Dorians, has been pleasedto affect astonishment, through one of his notes, that Hecatæus should have believed in the existence of the Hyperboreans! It became him, unquestionably, so to do, because that the proofs of their existence were beyond his own reach. But though theirreality, as well aslocality, have been already put beyond disputation, I will, to justify the exclusiveness here proclaimed, enter again upon the subject, and, without following in detail, show, by the reverse of his positions, that his whole system of mythology is equally erroneous.
In this determination I will of course be acquitted of any intentional slight. Who could read Professor Müller’s work, and not be struck with the labour and the ingenuity which distinguish its every page? I yield to no man in my respect for his abilities, but I weep, from my soul, that his classic care was not bequeathed upon some other subject, rather than be split upon a rock by anignis fatuus. I never saw such a waste of letters as his book exhibits! I never saw such learned research so miserably thrown away! And how could it be otherwise, his great object having been to make everything square to the reveries of the Grecians!—taking them as his clue, into a labyrinth of inextricability, through one inch of which neither conductor nor traveller could see their way!
Sweetpahlaviof the Hyperboreans, I will takeyouas my guide!
“———Nor be my thoughtsPresumptuous counted, if amid the calmThat soothes the vernal evening into smiles,I steal impatient, from the sordid hauntsOf strife and low ambition, to attendThy sacred presence, in the sylvan shade,By their malignant footstep ne’er profaned.”—Thomson.
Before we descend to language, I shall collect the historical concordances that bear upon this investigation.
Beo, a poetess of Delphi, mentions in the fragment of a poem, quoted by Pausanias, that three individuals, sons of Hyperboreans, and namedOlen,Pagasus, andAgyeus, had founded the oracle of Delphi. Will it be credited that those three names are but representatives of three several orders of our Irish priests, viz. Ollam, Pagoes, and Aghois?[511]
At Delos the same tradition is to be encountered, with but a few local alterations: such as that of Latona having arrived there from the Hyperboreans, in the form of ashe-wolf; Apollo and Diana, with the virgins Arge and Opis, following afterwards. Two other virgins, viz. Laodice and Hyperoche, succeeded, and with them five men, who were calledperipherees, or carriers, from their bringing with them offerings of first-fruits, wrapt in bundles of wheaten straw.
But is this embassy altogether a fiction? “There is not a fact in all antiquity,” says Carte, “that made a greater noise in the world, was more universally known, or better attested by the gravest and most ancient authors among the Greeks, than this of the sacred embassies of the Hyperboreans to Delos,intimes preceding, by aninterval of ages, the voyages of the Carthaginians to the north of the Straits of Gibraltar.” “No argument to the contrary,” says Müller, “can be drawn from its not being mentioned either in theIliadorOdyssey, these poems not affording an opportunity for its introduction: moreover, the Hyperboreans were spoken of in the poem of the Epigoni, and by Hesiod.... Stephanus quotes here a supposed oracle of a prophetess namedAsteria, that the inhabitants and priests of Delos came from the Hyperboreans.” So that we are by no means dependent, as implied before, upon Diodorus Siculus, for the narrative.
On this subject Herodotus says that “the suite of this Hyperborean embassy having been ill-treated by the Greeks, they took afterwards another method of sending their sacred presents to the temples of Apollo and Diana, delivering them to the nation that lay nearest to them on the continent of Europe, with a request that they might be forwarded to their next neighbour: and thus they were transmitted from one people to another, through thewesternregions, till they came to theAdriatic, and there, being put into the hands of the Dodoneans, the first of the Greeks that received them, they were conveyed thence by the Melian Bay, Eubœa, Carystus, Andras, and Tenos, till at last they arrived at Delos.”
Could he, I ask, more geographically pourtray their route from Ireland?
Alcæus, in a hymn to Apollo, says that “Jupiter adorned the new-born god with a golden fillet and lyre, and sent him in a chariot drawn by swans to Delphi, in order to introduce justice and law among the Greeks. Apollo, however, ordered the swans firstto fly to the Hyperboreans. The Delphians, missing the god, instituted a pæan and song, ranged choruses of young men around the tripod, and invoked him to come from the Hyperboreans. The god remained an entire year with that nation, and, at the appointed time, when the tripods of Delphi were destined to sound, he ordered the swans to resume their flight. The return of Apollo takes place exactly in the middle of summer; nightingales, swallows, and grasshoppers sang in honour of the god; and even Castalia and Cephisus heave their waves to salute him.”
Now Mr. Bryant assures us that—
“The Celtic sages a tradition hold,That every drop of amber was a tearShed by Apollo,when he fled from heaven,—For sorely did he weep,—andsorrowing passedThrough many a doleful region, till he reachedThe sacred Hyperboreans.”[512]
Words could not convey a more direct delineation of the first arrival of the Tuath-de-danaans amongst us, with their mysterious worship, after their ejectment fromIran, their paradise, or earthlyheaven, for the loss of which they “sorely wept,” until at length they found a substitute inIrin. Thelyreorharpwhich they brought with them, and solely for celebrating the praises of Apollo, continues still our national emblem; and those swans which are said to have drawn his chariot formed so essential a part of our ceremonial, that you shall be presented by and by with one of his magic implements, to which they are still attached, as they are similarly figured upon the painted vases, remaining after our allied Etrurians in the south of Italy.
As to the embassy of Abaris, the direct fact is socompletely authenticated by our ancient records, which narrate the circumstance, with no view to decide an historical controversy, but with indifference thereto, and as in ordinary course,—that it is inevitable but that, when the Greeks say that this philosopher had gone to them from theHyperboreans,—and when we produce proofs to show that a man of thesame namehad repaired on theerrandalluded to, fromourcountry toGreece, it is inevitable, I say, but that, when both statements so perfectly tally, the island of theHyperboreansand that of theHiberniansmust be one and the same.
I shall now subjoin from General Vallancey’s works, as he translates it from an old Irish poem, the authentic narrative of this our Hyperborean embassy.
“The purport of the Tuath-de-danaans journey was in quest of knowledge,And to seek a proper place where they should improve in Druidism.These holy men soon sailed to Greece. The sons of Nirned, son of Adhnam,Descendant of Baoth, from Bœotia sprung. Thence to the care of skilful pilots,This Bœotian clan, like warlike heroes, themselves committed,And after a dangerous voyage, the ships brought them to Loch Luar.Four cities of great fame, which bore great sway,Received our clan, in which they completed their studies.Spotless Taleas, Goreas, majestic Teneas and Mhuiras,For sieges famed, were the names of the four cities.Morfios and Earus-Ard,Abhras, and Lemas, well-skilled in magic,Were the names of our Druids; they lived in the reign of Garman the Happy.Morfios was made Fele of Falias, Earus the poet in Gone dwelt,Samias dwelt at Mhurias, butAbhras, the Tele-fionn, at Teneas.”
A quarrel, it would seem, ensued between them and the Fir-Bolgs on their return: and the Seanneachees, in their incapacity to separate any two events of a similar character from each other,confounded the differences which arose herefrom with the battles foughtsix hundred years before, between the ancestors of both parties, on the plains ofMoye-tureadh!
Atpage 67I have stated that this event took place aboutB.C.600. And this very circumstance it was—I mean the lateness of the date—which rendered the expedition at all needful.
The Tuath-de-danaans having been for a long time humiliated, and allowed but a mere nominal existence in a remote canton of the realm, their ritual got merged into that of the Druids. A corresponding decay had vitiated their taste for letters, while the Greeks, in proportion, rose in the scale.
Pythagoras had by this time returned from his tour to Egypt, and the fame of his acquirements had reached the Tuath-de-danaans. Naturally solicitous to court the acquaintance of an individual who had derived his information from the kindred of their ancestors,[513]they had address enough to obtain leave from the several States of the kingdom to repair to Greece, on the alleged plea of returning the visit[514]oftheArgonautsto our shores many ages previously,[515]but actually with a view to gratify their predilections by philosophical inquiry.
When themeteors met, it is difficult now to decide which orb it was that emitted the greater light. But without being too much biassed by the links of patriotism, I think we may very fairly aver that our countryman communicated,depressed even as was his order at that day, as much information as he had received.[516]
Who then can any longer doubt but that this was the island of the Hyperboreans? Even thepeculiarityof our language mingles in the chain of proof; as Diodorus states that “the Hyperboreans usetheir ownnatural tongue.” But were all other arguments wanting, I would undertake to prove the identity by an admission from this transcriber himself. “The sovereignty of this city,” says he, “and the care of the temple belong to theBoreades.”[517]
Now, nothing ever has puzzled etymologists so much to explore as the origin of the Irish termBards.[518]Theguesseswhich they have made thereat are so exceedingly amusing, that I will take leave torefreshmyself, exhausted and languid as I now wellnigh am, with the outline of a few.
First, Bochart would derive it fromparat, to speak!!! Wilford from the Sanscrit,varta!!! But “some learned friends of his are of opinion that it comes frombhardanan, to burthen!!! because burthened with the internal management of the royal household”!!!
I shall spare my reader any more of thosecaricatures, and submit to his own candour to adjudicate whetherBardscould, by possibility, be anything else than the modern Englification for our ancientBoreades?
Doubtless, Professor Müller, your astonishment has now subsided as to Hecatæus’s credulity in the existence of the Hyperboreans. Diodorus Siculus, who,though, as Granville Penn has affirmed, he “has transmitted to us manyscatteredand important truths,” yet does the same judicious commentator add, that it was in a condition “intermixed with much idle fiction,equivocation, and anachronism,”[519]was herein your guide! But themanesof the Hyperboreans now speak from the tomb, and vindicate theirexistenceas well as theirlocality!
I come now to prove this by another mode.
Plato, in hisCratylus, represents Hermogenes as proposing several terms to Socrates for solution, when the following acknowledgment transpires:—
“I think,” says the philosopher, “that the Greeks, especially such of them as lived subject to the dominion of foreigners, adoptedmany foreign words; so that, if anyone should endeavour to resolve those words by reference to theGreek language, or to any otherthan that from which the wordwas received, he must needs be involved in error!”
Theforeignextraction, then, ofmanyof the Greek words being admitted, it devolves upon me to establish this extraction to be purelyIrish.
To begin with Dodona—“In Eustathius and Steph. Byzantius,” says Vallancey, “we meet with three different conjectures in regard to the derivation of the name Dodona, which, they say, owes its origin either to a daughter of Jupiter and Europa, or one of the nymphs, the daughter of Oceanus; or, lastly, to a river in Epirus, called Dodon. But, as Mr. Potter observes, we find the Greek authors all differ, both as to the etymology of the name and the site of this oracle. In my humble opinion, Homer and Hesiodhave not only agreed that it was not in Greece, but in Ireland, or some island, at least, as far westward.”
The passages to which the General refers in those ancient poets are—
“Σευ ανα Δωδωναιε Πελασγικε τηλοθι ναιωνΔωδωνης μεδεων δυσχειμερου.”[520]
That is,—
Pelasgian Jove, whofar from Greeceresid’stIn cold Dodona.
“Δωδωνην Φηγονν τε Πελασγων εδρανων ηκεν.”[521]
That is,—
To Dodona he came, and the hallowed oak, the seat of the Pelasgi.
Valuable as are those authorities, the General needed not to have had recourse to them at all, had he but been apprised of the origin of the wordDodona.
One of the religious names of Ireland, which I have purposely left unexplained till now, wasTotdana.[522]This it derived immediately from theTuath-de-danaans, as indeed it did all its ancient names, with the exception of Scotia.Tuath-de-danaansI have shown to mean theMagic-God-Almoners,[523]andTotdana, by consequence, must denote theMagic-almonry.[524]
Now, the Greeks, having been initiated in all their religious mystery by the Irish, did not only enrich their language with the vocabulary of our ceremonial, but adopted the several epithets of ourisland as the distinctive names for their various localities, so that ourMuc-inis[525]became theirMyc-ene, ourTot-dana, their Do-dona, etc. etc. And even the names of our lakes, with all their legends ofhydrasandenchantments, found their way to them also, so that from our Lough-Erne was formed, by a crasis, their L-Erna.
The change fromTot-danatoDo-donais much more obvious than may seem at first sight.TandDbeing commutable,Tot-dana was at once madeDot-dana; the intermediatetwas then left out for sound’s sake, making it Do-dana; and, lastly, the penultimateawas transformed intoofor the “ore rotundo,”[526]completing theGrecismof Do-dona.
You see, therefore, from this that the origin ofDodonawas exclusively Irish! thatDodonaandIrelandwere, in fact, one and the same!—a circumstance of which Homer was perfectly well assured when he styled it Δωδωνη δυσχειμερος, or theHyperborean Tot-dana.[527]
Neither was it innameonly, but insanctityalso, that the GreekMyc-enestrove to imitate ourMuc-inis. To this hour is to be found one of the ancient Pelasgian temples, vulgarly termed theTreasury of Atreus, from the mere circumstance, as Dr. Clarke well remarks, “of there being found a fewbrass nailswithin it, and evidently for the purpose of fastening onsomethingwherewith theinterior surface was formerly lined, and that many a long year beforeAtreus or Agamemnon!” The Doctor, however, was perfectly astray in supposing it asepulchre! In form it is a hollow cone, fifty feet in diameter, and as many in height, composed of enormous masses of a very hardbreccia, a sort of pudding-stone, the very material whereof most of our Round Towers are constructed, and the property of which is to indurate by time. TheDune of Dornadellain Scotland isidenticallythesame kind of structure, built by our Tuath-de-danaans, and for the solemn purpose ofreligionalone. This is so accurately described in an article in theEdinburgh Magazine, copied intoPennant’s Tour, that I too will make free to transcribe it.
“It is,” says the reviewer, “of a circular form, and now nearly resembling the frustum of a cone: whether, when perfect, it terminated in a point, I cannot pretend to guess; but it seems to have been higher, by the rubbish which lies round it. It is built of stone, without cement, and I take it to be between twenty and thirty feet still. The entrance is by a low and narrow door, to pass through which one is obliged to stoop much; but perhaps the ground may have been raised since the first erection. When one is got in, and placed in the centre, it is open overhead.All round the sides of the walls are ranged stone shelves, one above another, like a circular beaufait, reaching from near the bottom to the top.The stones which compose these shelves are supported chiefly by the stones which form the walls, and which project all round, just in that place where the shelves are, and in no others; each of the shelves is separated into several divisions, as in a bookcase. There are some remains of an awkward staircase.What use the shelves could be applied to I cannot conceive.It could not be of any military use, from its situationat the bottom of a sloping hill, which wholly commands it. The most learned amongst the inhabitants, such as the gentry and clergy, who all speak theIrishlanguage, could give no information or tradition concerning its use, or the origin of its name.”
Now, ourRound Towershave similarshelves, or recesses in the wall, and “reaching, like a circular beaufait, from near the bottom to the top”! Wherever these do not appear, their place is supplied byprojecting stones, for the evident purpose of acting as supporters.[528]And as theMycenian, theCaledonian, and theHibernianedifices thus far correspond, the only thing that remains isto explain to what purpose could those recessesserve.
I thus solve the question—They were as so many cupboards for containing the idols of Budha, as the structures themselves fortemplesof his worship, etc. Nor is this their use yet forgotten, in the buildings of the like description in Upper India, as appears from the following statement by Archer. “In the afternoon,” says he, “I went to look at aJain temple. It was a neat building, with an upper storey.The idol is Boadh.There is a lattice verandah of brick and mortar round the shrine, and there aresmall cupboards, in which numerous figures of the idol are ranged on shelves.”
Arguments crowd upon me to establish these particulars; the only difficulty is in the compression. I shall, however, continue to prove this from another source, even by showing that when Ezekiel declared, in allusion to Tyre, that “the men ofDedanwere thymerchants,”[529]he meant the men ofIreland.
First let me refer you topage 4, by which youwill be reminded of our ancient possession of anaval equipment. Secondly, let me quote to you an extract from Vallancey, when directing the result to a different application. His words are: “Another proof of the ancient Irish being skilled in the art of navigation, I draw from a fragment of the Brehon laws in my possession, where the payment, or the reward, for the education of children, whilst under the care of fosterers, is thus stipulated to be paid to the ollamhs, or professors, distinguishing private tuition from that of public schools. The law says: ‘If youth be instructed in the knowledge of cattle, the payment shall be three eneaclann and a seventh; if in husbandry and farming, three eneaclann and three-sevenths; if in milrach,i.e.glais-argneadh as tear, that is,superior navigation, or the best kind of knowledge, the payment shall be five eneaclann and the fifth of an eanmaide; if inglais-argneadhistein, that is, second, or inferior (branch of) navigation, two eneaclann and a seventh.’ And this law is ordained because the pupils must have been previously instructed inletters, which is the lowest education of all.”
Thus you see, at all events, that we werequalifiedfor the duties required. Now, I willdemonstrate, and that too by the aid, or rather at the expense, of Mons. Heeren, that we were the actual persons pointed to by the prophet.
“Deden,” says the professor, “is one of the Bahrein, or rather more northerly one of Cathema. The proofs, which to detail here would be out of place, may be found in Assemani,Bib. Orient.tom. ii. par. ii. pp. 160, 564, 604, and 744. Difficulties arise here, not merely from want of maps, but also from the variation and confusion of names.Daden, orDeden,is also frequently calledDirin; and it may be conjectured that from hence arose the name of Dehroon, which is given to one of the Bahrein islands in the map of Delisle. If that were the case, then Dedan would not be Cathema, as Assemani asserts, but the island mentioned above; and this is rendered probable by theresemblance of names, which is a certain guide.”
If the “resemblanceof names” be “a certain guide,”identityof names must be still more certain; and then must myproofsalready prevail, and the professor’sconjecturesfall to the ground! Surely he cannot say that there is any even resemblance betweenD-IrinandDehroon! But he admits that the place alluded to is called indifferentlyDedan[530]andD-Irin; and have I not shown that each of those names, identical and unadulterated, belongedproperlyto Ireland? Ireland, therefore,alonecan be the country alluded to by the inspired penman.
In denying, however, aDodonato the Greeks, and an oracle also, General Vallancey was quite incorrect. What he should have maintained was, that bothnameandoraclehad theirprototypesin Ireland; but that, so remote was the date at which the transfer occurred, all insight into the mysteries had long since perished.
Indeed, their priests very frankly acknowledged the fact to Herodotus, when, in his thirst for information, he waited upon them at Dodona. “We do not,” said they, “know even thenamesof the deities to whom we make our offerings—we distinguish them, it is true, by titles and designations; but theseare all adventitious and modern in comparison of the worship, which is of great antiquity.” Upon which the historian very truly concludes, “that theirnatureandorigin had been always a secret; and that even the Pelasgi, who first introduced them and their rites, had been equally unacquainted with their history.”
Like a true Greek, however, he must set aboutcoiningan origin for them; and so he tells usa cock-and-a-bullstory of twopigeons(Peleiai) having taken flight from Thebes in Upper Egypt, and never stopped until they perched, one upon the top of Dodona, and the other God knows where; and then he flatters himself he has the allegory solved, byimaginingthat thosepigeonswerepriestesses, orold women, carried off by Phœnician pirates, and sold into the land of Greece!
In this he has been followed by thousands of imitators, and quoted miraculously at all the public schools. Nay, his disciples would fain evenimproveupon thething; and Servius has gone so far as to say that theold woman’sname wasPelias!
Now, here is the whole mystery unravelled for you.
When the Greeks established an oracle oftheirDodona, subordinate to our master one, they adopted, at the same time, one of the orders of our priesthood. This was that of thePheeleas, the meaning of which being to them an enigma, theybent it, as usual, to some similar sound in their own language.[531]This was that ofPeleiai, in the accusativePeleias, which, in the dialect of Attica, signifiespigeons, and in thatof Epirus,old women; and so the whole metamorphosis was forthwith adjusted!
“The very extraordinary piece of antiquity, represented in the annexed woodcut, was found,” says Mr. Petrie, “in a bog at Ballymoney, county of Antrim, and exhibited to the Royal Irish Academy, by the Lord Bishop of Down, in March 1829. Its material is that description ofbronzeof which all the ancient Irish weapons, etc., are composed, and its actual size is four times that of the representation. It is a tube, divided by joints at A and B into three parts, which, on separating, were found to contain brass wire, in a zigzag form, a piece of which is represented inFig.G. This wire appears to have been originally elastic, but when found was in a state of considerable decomposition. At E and F are two holes, about one-eighth of an inch in diameter, and seem intended for rivets or pins to hold the instrument together. The birds move on loose pins, which pass through the tube, and on the other end are rings. The material and style of workmanship of this singular instrument leaves no doubt of its high antiquity. But weconfess ourselves totally unable to form even a rational conjecture as to its probable use, and should feel obliged to any antiquary who would throw light upon it.”[532]
Had the antiquarianhigh-priestto thismagnanimousassemblage been equally modest in former cases, and courtedinstruction, instead of erectinghimselfinto aPheelea, he would not cut the figure which he now does. Ignorance is no fault: it is only its vagaries that are so ridiculous!
However, he has said—I beg pardon, he is in thepluralnumber—well, then,theyhave said, thatthey would feel obliged to anyantiquarywho would throw light upon the subject.
To be sure, I am noantiquary. The Royal Irish Academy have madethatas clear as the sun at noonday. Nay, they have even strove to make theirbrethrenat this side of the water to think so also! But their brethren at this side of the water are toohonesta people, and toonoblein their purpose, to make history a trade, and to stifletruthat the unhallowed dictates of interest or partiality.
No matter; I will tell all what this piece of antiquity was.It was the actual instrument through which the oracle of Dodona was announced!You see upon it theswansby which Apollo was brought to the Hyperboreans! Thebulbul of Iranalso attends in the train; and the affinity of this latter bird to the species ofpigeons, convinced the Greeks that they had really hit off the interpretation of the wordPheelea! and thatpigeonswere, in truth, thedeliverersof the oracle.
This was the block upon which Abbé Bannier was stumbling. Having learned from some quarter, I believe from Aristotle, that there were somebrassappendages contiguous to Dodona, he converts those appendages intokettles—a worthy friend of mine would add,of fish—“which,” says he, “being lashed with a whip, clattered against one another until the oracle fulminated”!!!
As to those oracles themselves, with the registries of which antiquity is so replete, I will here articulate my individual belief. No one who knows me can suppose that I am superstitious; and, for those who know me not, the sentiments herein delivered will scarcely foster the imputation. Yet am I asthoroughly persuaded as I am of my personal consciousness, that some prescience they did possess, conducted partly by human fraud, and partly by spiritual co-operation.
There is no question but that there must have been somesupernaturalagency in the business; forhumanskill and human sagacity could never penetrate the deepintricaciesof doubt, and the importantpregnanciesof time which they haveforeshown.[533]
Porphyry, in his bookDe Dæmonibus, and Iamblichus in hisDe Mysteriis, expressly mention thatdemonswere in every case the authors of oracles. Without going all this length, we may readily allow that they had perhaps a great share in them; neither will the ambiguity in which their answers were sometimes couched detract anything from this admission, because the spirits themselves, when ignorant of any contingency, would, of course, try to screen their defect by the vagueness of conjectures, in order that if the issue did not correspond with their advice, it may be supposed owing to misinterpretation. The instance of Crœsus and the Delphian oracle was an interesting event. He sent to all the oracles on the same day this question for solution,viz. “What is Crœsus, the son of Alyattes, King of Lydia, now doing?” That of Delphi answered thus: “I know the number of the sand of Libya, the measure of the ocean—the secrets of the silent and dumb lie open to me—I smell the odour of a lamb and tortoise boiling together in a brazen cauldron; brass is under and brass above the flesh.”
Having heard this reply, Crœsus adored the god of Delphi, and owned the oracle had spoken truth; for he was on that day employed inboiling together a lamb and a tortoisein acauldron of brass, which had a cover of the same metal. He next sent, enjoining his ambassadors to inquire whether he should undertake a war against the Persians? The oracle returned answer, “If Crœsus passes the Halys, he will put an end to a vast empire.”
Not failing to interpret this as favourable to his project, he again sent to inquire, “If he should long enjoy the kingdom?” The answer was, “That he should till a mule reigned over the Medes.” Deeming this impossible, he concluded that he and his posterity should hold the kingdomfor ever. But the oracle afterwards declared that by “amule” was meantCyrus, whose parents were of different nations—his father a Persian, and mother a Mede. By whichmule, says a facetious writer, the good man Crœsus was thus made anass!
That the priests, however, used much deception in the business, and that this deception did not escape the notice of the learned men of the time, is evident from the charge which Demosthenes had brought against thePythia, of her being accustomed toPhilippise, or conform her notes to the tune of the Macedonian emperor. The knowledge of this circumstancemade the prudent at all times distrust their suggestions, whilst the rabble, without gainsay, acquiesced as blindly in the belief of their infallibility.
But it was not only as to the meaning of the wordPheeleathat the Greeks were unapprised, they knew not the import of their own namePelargi![534]It is compounded of this same termpheelea, anauguror adiviner; andargh, the symbolicboat, or yoni! And, mind you, that this was the great difference between the Pelargi—which is but another name for Pish-de-danaans—and the Tuath-de-danaans, that the latter venerated themaleorgan of energy, and the former thefemale; therefore in no country occupied by the former do you meet withRound Towers, though you invariably encounter thosetracesofart, which prove their descent fromone common origin.
As presiding over thedivinersof thesymbolical boat, Jupiter was calledPelargicus.[535]
Agyeuswas another term in their religious vocabulary, as applied to Apollo, of which the Greeks knew not the source. They could not, indeed, well mistake, that it was derived immediately from αγυια,via; but that did not expound the fact, and they were still in ignorance of its proper import. It is merely a translation of ourRudh-a-vohir, that is,Apollo-of-the high-roads, not, what the Greeks understood it, asstationarythereon, but, on the contrary, asitinerant;and to whomVenus the strangercorresponded on the other side; the especial province of both being to ensure the comforts ofhospitality, ofprotection, and oflove, to all emigrants and all travellers.
Gruniewas another epithet applied toApollo, as we may read in a hymn composed by Orpheus, which they could not comprehend. It is derived fromGrian, one of our names for theSun.
But, beyond comparison, the most inexplicable of all the epithets applied to this divinity isLycæus; which, though—as has been the case, you perceive, inevery subject yet discussed—it can be explained only in theIrish!—yet, eventhere, it opposes some difficulties to discourage, but not more than what give way to sagacity and to perseverance.
At Glendalough, in the county Wicklow, one of the proudest abodes of Budhism, are found, amongst other sculptures, upon the dilapidated ruins, those which you see opposite.
Thewolfis the most frequent in the multitude of those hieroglyphics. His character is exhibited in more attitudes than one—and all mysteriously significant of natural designs.
In one place you observe his tail gracefully interwoven with the long hair of a young man’s head. That represents the youth Apollo, controlling by his efficacy—alias, the sun’s genial rays—the most hardened hearts, and so revolutionising the tendency of the inborn system, as from antipathy often to produce affection and love!
Of this illustration, the practical proof is afforded inBakewell’s Travels in the Tarentaise, to the following purpose, viz.:—
“By way of enlivening the description of thestructure of animals, he (M. de Candolle, Lecturer on Natural History at Geneva), introduced many interesting particulars respecting what he calledleur morale, or their natural dispositions, and the changes they underwent when under the dominion of man. Among other instances of the affection which wolves had sometimes shown to their masters, he mentioned one which took place in the vicinity of Geneva. A lady, Madame M——, had a tame wolf, which seemed to have as much attachment to its mistress as a spaniel. She had occasion to leave home for some weeks; the wolf evinced the greatest distress after her departure, and at first refused to take food. During the whole time she was absent, he remained much dejected: on her return, as soon as the animal heard her footsteps, he bounded into the room in an ecstasy of delight; springing up, he placed one paw on each of her shoulders, but the next moment he fell backwards and instantly expired.”
Elsewhere you discern two wolves unmercifully tearing at a human head! And this is symbolical of a species of disease, of which there is published an account in a work calledThe Hospitall of Incurable Fooles, translated from the Italian by Todd, to the following effect, viz.:—
“Amongst these humours of Melancholy, the phisitions place a kinde of madnes, by the Greeks calledLycanthropia, termed by the LatinesInsania Lupina, orWolves furie: which bringeth a man to this point (as Attomare affirmeth), that in Februarie he will goe out of the house in the nightlike a wolfe, hunting about the graves of the dead with great howling:and plucke the dead men’s bones out of the sepulchres, carrying them about the streets, to the great fear andastonishment of all them that meete him: And the foresaide author affirmeth, that melancholike persons of this kinde have pale faces, soaked and hollow eies, with a weak sight, never shedding one tear to the view of the world,” etc.
And that this was epidemic amongst the Irish is proved bySpenser’stestimony, when, drawing a parallel between the Scythians and the Irish of his day, he says: “Also, the Scythians said, that they were once a year turned into wolves; and so it is written of the Irish: though Martin Camden, in a better sense, doth suppose it was a disease, called lycanthropia, so named of the wolf: and yet some of theIrish doe use to make the wolf their gossip.”
Thus it appears, that the Irish were not only acquainted with thenatureof thissickness, but also with the knack oftamingthatanimalof which it bore the name. All this was connected with the worship of Apollo, and with Eastern mythology. Nay, the verydogs, for which our country was once famous,[536]and which were destined as protectors against the ravages of thewolf, are clear, from Ctesias, to have had their correspondents in India.
The epithetLyceus, I conceive, now elucidated; and so leave to yourself topenetratethe rest of those devices. But I shall not, at the same time, take leave of the “Valley of the Two Lakes.”[537]
On one of the loose stones, which remain afterthis wreck of magnificence, you will see a full delineation of “The history of Dahamsonda, King of Baranes (modern Benares), who, as his name implies, was a zealous lover of religious knowledge; and wasincarnated, in order to be tried between hisattachment to religionand his zeal for thesalvation of the worldon the one side, and his love tohis own life, and hisattachment to his kingdomand wealth, as well as his kindred and friends, on the other; for which purpose the gods had gradually and completelywithdrawn the light of religious knowledgefrom the world by the time of his accession to the throne.”[538]
This king, in his anxiety to regain thelostcondition of mankind—to recover their literature and theirancientknowledge of religion, instructs his courtiers to proclaim the offer of a casket of gold, “as a reward to any person” who would instruct his majesty in the mysteries of theBana,[539]that is, the BudhistGospel, with a view to its salutary repropagation.
The officers proceeded in quest of such a phenomenon; but,in the extent of their own realms, he was not to be found!
This excites the uneasiness of the king, who “having by degreesincreased his offersto thousands and millions of money, high titles, possessions of land and great privileges; and, at last, offering his own throne and kingdom, but still finding no instructor,leaves his court, resolved to become private traveller, and not to rest till he has found one who could communicate to him the desired knowledge. Havingfor a length of time travelledthrough manykingdoms, towns, andvillages, enduring hardships, he is, at last, by providential interference, led througha delightful valley(which affords him subjects for consideration and recreation of mind) into a dismal forest, the habitation of frightful demons,venomous reptiles, and beasts of prey.
“Sekkraiahaving on the occasion come down from heaven, in the disguise of aRaksha, meetsBodhesat(the king) in the wilderness, who fearlessly enters into conversation with him, and informs him of the object of his wanderings. The disguised deity undertaking to satisfy the king, if he will sacrifice to him his flesh and blood in exchange for the sacred knowledge,Bodhesatcheerfully ascends a steep rock, shown him by the apparition, and throws himself headlong to the mouth of theRaksha. The king’s zeal being thus proved,Sekkraia, in his own heavenly form, receives him in his arms, as he is precipitating himself from the rock,” and has him initiated in the desired information.[540]