25 



Pioperlius had never heard of Ireland, and very improbable that 

 he knew this island to have been peopled by the Getae or Scythians, 

 tetvveen whom and the Romans the intercourse was so limited, that 

 Ovid, in order to preserve his native language in remembrance, was 

 obliged to devote the chief part of his time to writing and soliloquy. 

 Catullus is said to have been born 86 years before Christ ; he was 

 probably cotemporary with Propertius, who, it is supposed, had died 

 10 years before the Christian sera, and certainly with Cassar, with 

 whom he was intimate. But, notwithstanding this intimacy, he 

 must have been ignorant of the existence of Ireland, when he twice 

 calls Britain the most western island :. 



1 quis potest pati, 



Mamurram habere, quod comata Galiia 

 Habebat unctutn, & ultima Britannia? 



Eonc nomine, iniperator unice, . ■ • 



,: -■ ' Fuibti in ultima occidentis insula J 



WHENCE IRELAND WAS PEOPLED, AND BY WHOM. 



THOSE Scythian or Gothic tribes having been classed under the 

 general denomination of Celtai or Celtee by Greek and Roman 

 writers, it becomes necessary to describe their relative situation. 

 They differed in manners and customs, and also in lajiguage. The 

 Germans or Teutons occupied the present Germany, whence they 

 extended themselves beyond the Albis or Elbe, occupying the pre- 

 sent Denmark, Sweden, Norway^ and Iceland; and, in later times, 

 the Orkney and Shetland isles^ the Thule of the ancients. Their 

 old west boundaries were the Rhine and the North sea, which 

 separated them from the Celtae of Gaul and Britain. With the 



VOL. xni. E 



