9 



that many of the ancient names of countries, seas, and places 

 are also significant ; and that the same thing is true of the 

 names of the Etruscans and Pelasgi, as well as of the words of 

 both these people which have come down to us in the Greek 

 and Roman writers. From this he infers that the Pelasgi, the 

 Etruscans, and the Celts were all colonies of the Phoenician 

 people, and all spoke the language now called Gaelic or 

 Hiberno-Celtic. He instanced the remarkable fact men- 

 tioned by Suetonius in his Life of Augustus Caesar, (c. 97,) 

 where, giving an account of the death of Augustus, and the 

 omens which preceded it, he says : 



" Sub idem tempus ictu fulminis ex inscriptione statuae 

 ejus prima nominis litera efHuxit. Responsum est centum solos 

 dies posthac victurum, quem numerum C litera notaret ; fu- . 

 turumque ut inter deos referretur, quod ^SAR, id est 

 reliqua pars e Caesaris nomine, Etrusca lingua Deus voca- 

 retur." jj,: 



•cro^<x;i is one of the Irish names for God, and not only is 

 the word itself to be found in the Irish dictionaries and 

 MSS. but it is compounded of two Irish words meaning the 

 eternal ruler, or ruler of ages : <yOf, ages — <X;i, ruler. 



The author gave many examples of the significance of the 

 names of the Greek and Roman divinities, and also of the 

 ancient names of countries, in the Hiberno-Celtic language ; 

 among them the following : 



Aurora — the golden hour, or sunrise. 



Bacchus — the lame drunkard. 

 ; Diana — the goddess. 



Gorgones — the frightful women. 



Haruspex — ^judging from a pang or throe. 

 '; Iris — the sun and the shower. 



Neptune — the king of the waves. 



The names of the Nereides denote the flitting aerial 

 nymphs ; the nymph of the sea weed ; the silent nymph ; 

 the spark of the wave ; the nymph of the deep water, the 



