33 



is two-fold. The one relating to their forefathers is Gaill or 

 Gaoill, corrapted into Gaoidhil ; and this signified Gauls of 

 France, of Britain, and Ireland. The other, applicable to the re- 

 lative situation of this island, and derived from it, is Erinigh, which 

 also means Irishmen. 



The former name, importing an origin anterior to the assumed 

 one of Britain, manifests its own remote antiquity. The various 

 significations of the word Gaoill are all illustrative of the original 

 stock. Gal and gaol signify kindred ; as fear Gaoil, a kinsman ; 

 hrathair Gdoil, a man of the same tribe ; sean-Gliaill, the old 

 English ; and Gaoileag is the appellation of the language they 

 conversed in. 



The term Gaoill, indiscriminately applied in later ages to fo- 

 reigners, evinces the ignorance of the lower order with regard to 

 the inhabitants of other nations ; and that of Welshers, bestowed, 

 by the common people of Germany, upon other foreigners residing 

 in Italy beside the Gauls, arose from the same cause."- 



WHY THE IRISH WERE DENOMINATED SCOTS OR SCYTHIANS. 



The inhabitants of Ireland were also, from the 3d to the I5th 

 century, known, in Britain and on the continent, under the denomi- 

 nations of Scoti, Scutten, Scythians, or Scots ; and the island was 

 indifferently called Scotia, Scotland, or Hibernia, without any 

 satisfactory reason assigned for the origin of those denominations. 



In the hands of late writers, the word Scotia, derived, probably 



VOL. XIII. I 



81, Verstegan, p. 152. 



