156 



the terrors of a novel warfare, and rushing to battle amidst the neighing 

 of horses and the crash of wheels. (" Novum pugnse conterruit genus, 

 essedis carrisque superstans, armatus hostis ingenti sonitu equorum 

 rotarumque advenit, et insolitos ejus tumultus Romanorum conter- 

 ruit equos.")* Diodorus Siculus is an authority to the same position, -f- 

 and here it is worth notice, that the Greek Kappov and the Latin car- 

 rus are actually derived from the Celtic " carr," and the very word 

 rota from the Celtic "rhod,";]: both retained in the Irish words carb 

 and roth. 



It was not competent for the above authors to have pronounced 

 any opinion as to the use of chariots in Ireland, its inhabitants being 

 only known to them as the undistinguished auxiliaries of their British 

 and Pictish enemies, while it must be admitted the Danish testimo- 

 nies, as to the mode of warfare in that island, are silent concerning the 

 use of chariots; yet it is difficult, in deference to unsupported asser- 

 tions, to forego the evidence of the records of the country, the proba- 

 bility arising from their universal use in Britain, and the inferential 

 notices that abound in the ancient Irish poems. The continuators of 

 Tigernach mention Conall of the swift horses, at A, D. 366 ; car-borne 

 heroes frequently occur in the Finian poems, and the animated descrip- 

 tion of the chariot of the Irish chieftain, Cuchullin, confessedly used 

 upon Irish ground,§ is a further testimony to the same effect ; while 

 we think it necessary to say, that in referring to this beautiful passage 

 in the poems attributed to Ossian, there is none, of whose individual 

 authenticity there are said to be so many proofs. II Unbending preju- 

 dice may attempt to decry such a specimen of ancient splendour in 

 these countries, but the classic illustration of Florus admits, that in 



* Livy, lib. x. c. 28. + Lib. 5. p. 362. 



% See Appendix to Pezron's Antiquities des Celtes^ &c. 



§ See Fingal. book 1. || See Sinclair's Dissertation on Ossian. 



