74 On the Affinity of the Hiberno- Celtic and Phenician Languages. 
Fortunately, the Phenician language has been preserved by their Irish descendants, 
and by it we are enabled to unravel difficulties, solve problems, and elucidate facts 
which, without an acquaintance with that tongue, must have remained for ever unex- 
plained and inexplicable mysteries. 
ON ITALY AND ITS ANTIENT INHABITANTS, 
Previously to the building of Rome, the history of the various antient people of 
Italy is involved in the deepest obscurity, and of the inhabitants of the more northern 
and western portions of Europe we absolutely know nothing whatever. We learn, 
indeed, from Pliny, (3 c. 5) Strabo, (5) Plutarch, (in Romulo) and Mela, (2 c. 4) 
that the Etruscans, or Tuscans, occupied the countries west of the Tiber, between that 
river and the Tyrhenian sea; and that they were divided into twelve tribes or dis- 
tricts, having each a chief, monarch, or leader, called a Lucoman. 
I have long been satisfied that the Etruscans were an early Phenician colony, and 
of the same race as the Pelasgi. They are both represented as civilized polished 
people; and the remains of the former, lately brought to light by the excavations of 
the Prince of Canino, as well as those which have been long known, exhibit a progress 
and perfection in the arts which moderns are happy to copy, seldom equal, and never 
excel, 
It may be asked, what other civilized people of that period, except the Phenicians, 
possessed a local habitation or a certain country? The Pelasgi are said to have 
spread abroad and settled colonies, but no historian has ever given them an original 
country. Were they not the Phenicians, disguised under another specific name ? as 
the Phenicians who inhabited the southern coasts of Arabia were called Homerite, 
which, Herodotus tells us, meant the same as Phenician, each indicating a seaman or 
mariner. 
The researches of Micali on the antient peoples of Italy, has thrown considerable 
light on this most interesting subject. He says, ‘In the religion of the Etruscans 
there is rather a general resemblance to the great oriental systems than to that which 
is purely and exclusively Egyptian—monuments of Phenician and other eastern super- 
stitions appear mingled with those of an Egyptian character.” 
A writer in the Quarterly Review for September, 1835, says, in the critique on 
Micali’s work, ‘“‘ The Etruscan language stands alone a problem and a mystery, not 
merely allied to none of the older dialects of Italy, but bearing no resemblance to any 
language to which it has been compared. 
The means of explaining and unravelling this difficulty has, hitherto, been wanting, 
but I shall endeavour to show that at least some of the Etruscan words and names 
are significant in an existing tongue, and indicate a resemblance so striking and pal- 
