169 



' 1 - 



binage,* and that in his epistle to Oceanus, he repeats the latter part 

 of the censure, (" promiscuas uxores, communes liberos habeant.") 

 But, without relying on the various readings, which, in the passage 

 cited below, make "Scotos," " Attacottos," and "pastorum nates," 

 " porcorum nates," or the restricting words " Scotos, gentem Britan- 

 nicam;" even had the exhibition, with which the father was thus in 

 his childhood indulged, actually occurred, yet eating human flesh in 

 Gaul, though by an Irishman, should no more be accounted a na- 

 tional taste, than eating frogs in the same country would at this day ; 

 but in truth, the story is too improbable to be accredited to the extent 

 that some would claim for it. From the extreme youth at which 

 Saint Jerome says he witnessed it " adolescentulus," it would rather 

 seem to have originated in one of those justly exploded stratagems, 

 by which nurses and tutors were accustomed to fright their infant 

 charges. * •« j,, ^,| , 



Neither should credit be given to the jaundiced phrase of Mar- 

 cellinus, " Scotorum Pictorumque gentium ferarum incursus, &c."f 

 Indeed the short simple sketch of Tacitus, who at least mingled with 

 his prejudices some opportunity of knowing Ireland through the 

 medium (however distorted,) of a banished prince, speaks " trumpet- 

 tongued" against the unfounded slanders of the above authors. ("The 

 genius and habits of the people do not much differ from those of Bri- 

 tain.".p Yet, even this masterly historian could yield to the national 



* "Quid loquar de caeteris nationibus, cum ipse adolescentulus in GaUia viderem Scotos, 

 gentem Britannicam, humanis vesci carnibus; et cum per sylvas porcorum greges et armentorum 

 pecudumque reperiant, pastorum nates foeminarumque papillas abscindere solitos, eteas solas 

 delicias arbitrari. Scotorum natio uxores proprias non babet, et quasi Platonis politiam lege- 

 rit et Catonis sectetur exemplum, nulla apud eas conjux propria est, sed ut cuique libitum 

 fuerit, pecudum more lasciviunt." — Hieron adversus Jovianum, lib 2. 



f Ante, p. 64, &c. . t ^«'*. P- 51. 



VOL. XVI. Z 



