'205 



That a connexion between Iran and Erin was kept up, there is 

 good reason, in the abundant testimony of the Irish annals, to be- 

 Heve. And we may justly trace to this source the many customs of 

 eastern, chiefly of Persian origin, which are found in this country ; 

 hence also the extraordinary coincidences which exist between the 

 Persian and Irish early histories, as before alluded to ;* hence the ap- 

 propriation to Ireland of so many eastern fables and legends, and even 

 of the famous prophecy attributed to Zoroaster. -f It is difficult to 

 imagine these to be all interpolations by the monks of the middle 

 ages, or to conceive that they could have produced forgeries, which 

 required a degree of learning, both classical and oriental, far ex- 

 ceeding what they have hitherto been suspected of; indeed beyond 

 the knowledge Europe then possessed of eastern history and coun- 

 tries ; forgeries too so artfully devised as often to surprise by a 

 concurrence the most curious and unexpected with chronology.;}: 

 If the Irish monks enjoyed this high degree of learning, whence 

 did they derive it ? Not from Europe, where it did not then exist. 



It follows therefore that either these joint annals were transferred 

 from the parent country along with the colonists, or that the Irish 

 monks of those dark ages obtained their information from that 

 country, with which consequently a connexion and intercourse was 

 maintained. 



There was no communication between Persia and Britain, be- 

 cause the first or eastern settlers, as it appears, had been driven 

 from that country by the Cumri ; therefore the antiquities of Britain 

 and Ireland agree only during such time as being peopled by the 



* Vindication of the Ancient History of Ireland, p. 180. et seq. — History of Armagh, p.611. 

 Trans. R. I. A., X. 

 •f- Ibid. p. 199.— Origin of Pagan Idolatry, II, p. 78. 

 % O'Connor's Dissertations, p. 7. 



