104 



bards> wliether contemporaries, or existing at very distant pe- 

 riods, perfectly agree ;* and surely their consistency, both as re- 

 gards these facts and in their representations of tiie manners and 

 customs of the people, forms a powerful evidence of their truth ; 

 while the circumstances of these histories being in verse offers a 

 strong proof of their antiquity. -f- It may be also observed, that had 

 these records been in great measure gleaned from those of other 

 countries, it must have been through the medium of Greek and 

 Roman authors, and in that case it would have been scarcely 

 possible, but that some tinge from the channel would remain. But 

 it is a remarkable fact, that none of the writings of the Irish Fileas, 

 or their successors, betray the smallest intimacy with these authors, | 

 II. By the language — from its possessing many words agreeing 

 with the ancient Persian and with the Sanscrit ; and a very great 

 number which have their roots in those tongues, most especially 

 the (erms of art — as all those belonging to the manufacture of linen 

 — to astronomy — the names of measures — and the terms employed 

 both in religion and government ;§ — all which words, though not 

 to be traced in the Celtic or its derivatives, are to be found in the 

 eastern tongue.^ 



• O'Connor's Dissert, Preface, p. v. 



+ Bishop Hutchinson's Defence of the Ancient Hist, of Ireland, p. 86. 



l O'Connor's Dissert, p. 198. 



§ Ghebelin asks how the Irish can be supposed to have borrowed terms from the Latin, 

 when all these terms are found in their ancient laws ? And Bailey is of opinion that, any 

 science must have originated with that people in whose language the technical terms are 

 expressed. 



f Corroborative of these opinions, is the discovery lately made by a scientific gentleman 

 residing at Bristol, of the remarkable circumstance, that most of the provincial names of 

 indigenous plants in that part of the kingdom are of Hebrew origin. (Class. Jour. No. LXI. 



p. 122.) 



In the honoured Irish shamrock, we have a curious coincidence, the trefoil plant (shamroc 



