14 



30 5S 



Et te se aneche nasoctelia helicos alemus dtiberteimi comps vespiti 



S7 S? 1 



Aodeanec Victor bedes jussiim limm»HColus.* 



36 dnhsiivi, an earnest prayer, or, Aohwci, mis- 37 Aoil eineacb, bountiful fire, 

 chief. 38 lie tor, stone tower. 



There are also some more fragments of the same dialect, in the 

 two following scenes of the Pcemulus, for which the reader is referred 

 to Vallancej, who, in the 2nd volume of his Collectanea de Rebus 

 Hibernicis, (p. 306, &c.) examines the w hole subject more fully, per- 

 haps more fancifully. From this astonishing affinity alone, it might 

 be maintained, either that the Carthaginians were a colony from the 

 Irish, or vice versa ; or that both, issued from one parent country ; 

 the first opinion has never been hinted or conceived, while the second 

 will be found equally unsupported by authority, and has even a strong 

 presumption against it, arising from the ignorance of the Romans, 

 both as to England and Ireland, to the time of Julius Caesar, (as 

 shall be shewn hereafter,) which would be monstrous to suppose, if 

 Carthage had been the parent of one: the last theory alone remains 

 to be adopted. -|- 



Having thus viewed the question in relation to some of its proba- 

 bilities, the attention of the reader is now called to more direct and 

 historical evidence. 



The Annals.]: of the Irish distinctly detail their origin in the 

 following chain of propositions : The Scythians (they say) were 



• Plauii. Comoed. ad edit. Gronovii, 1721, p. 530, A. v. Sc. 1. 



t It may be remarked, that the absorbing influence of the Phoenician language, over those 

 of the countries where it was introduced, is recorded in many instances. Plato, in particular, 

 attributes to it the decline of the Greek tongue in Sicily, " it|«( h r^iim £<; i^r,u.tcfi tij? Ea^dhk);? 

 ifmYii liKiXnt x-eCTX, ^oiviicat i) Ottixuv fiiTa^aX»vi!-» lit Tivu ivfus-Ttixv kici K^tcrof." — Plato, Epist. 8. 



% Psalter of Cashel, Psalt. of Tara, White Book, Book of Invasions, &c. 



