of distinction, the western island,^- the ultima habitatio occidua of 

 Europe, and would have been a sort of polar star to those Celtic and 

 Scythian tribes, which have at various times migrated hither. In 

 the south, and, for aught I know, in other parts of Ireland, lo- 

 cality is still constantly distinguished in Irish, by reference to the 

 cardinal points. 



♦ ^ 



THE HISTORY OF IRELAND, 



ACCORDING TO 



NATIVE WRITERS. 



UNACQUAINTED with almost every history, but that of the 

 Bible, and ignorant even of every alphabet, before Christianity had 

 introduced the British Roman, the bards and romancers of Ire- 

 land, as some Spanish and Gothic writers have also done,^- avail- 

 ed themselves of this source of information to invent tales, suited 

 to give an exalted idea of the origin of their ancestors ; ' non 

 tam ut vera referant, quam ut delectent.' These were of so ex- 

 travagant a nature, that some late native historians,^ in sepa- 

 rating what they avow to be fabulous from the true history, have 

 altered and adjusted some of the subjects within the bounds 

 of possibility, though not of probability, and then presented them 

 to tlie world as incontestable facts. 



6. And in this sense it is named by the Welsh, Ywertion, yverton, or the western country. 



7. The Spaniards derive their origin from Tuba), and some of the Saxon writere from Ma- 

 gog, grandsons of Noah. 



8. O'Flaheity and a'so TVIa Geoghegan. 



