MacNkilt. — An Irish Historical Tract dated A.D. 721. 145 



NotwiMistanrlini:; these discrepancies, the later accounts of prehistoric 

 Ireland lind tlio source of their chronology in Z. 



The redactor of the Leabhar Gabhdla in the Book of Leinster assigns a 

 much earlier period to the Gaelic conquest than Z, but preserves the 

 Fir Bolg period of 37 years and the Tuatha De Danann period of 197 years, 

 as in Z. 



Synchronism B puts the Gaelic conqtiest at 1229 B.C. — nine centuries 

 earlier than in Z — but has a Fir Bolg period of 35 years and a Tuatha D^ 

 Danann period of 197 years. 



Gilla Coemain's chronological poem (MacOarthy, "Todd Lectures," pages 

 151-157) requires as early a date as 1545 B.C. — twelve centuries before 

 Alexander — for the Gaelic conquest, but has a Fir Bolg period of 37 years 

 and a Tuatha De Danann period of 197 years. 



Keating (Irish Texts Society, vol. iv., pp. 196, 225) assigns 36 years to the 

 Fir Bolg and 197 to the Tuatha De Danann. 



Evidently, then, the Cyi-us-Cambyses- Alexander chronology of Z lies at 

 the root of the school-made histories of prehistoric Ireland. The Z version of 

 the legend of Mil and his sous is thus the oldest version now known. One broad 

 conclusion follows with certainty, Gilla Coemain's long list of 136 monarchs 

 of Ireland before St. Patrick's time is for the most part the product of 

 medieval invention. The earlier section of the Irish genealogies, constructed 

 in harmony with that list, must also l3e in the same degree artificial. Probably 

 the materials in each case were collected largely from traditional sources ; 

 but the structure bears the same relation to genuine Irish tradition as a 

 modern edifice built out of the stones of Clonmacnois might bear to the 

 ancient monastery. 



NOTES. 



I. Partholon. — This is not a Gaelic name. It appears agam in Flaithiusa 

 Herenu (BB 43 a 13), where the pedigree of Cruithne, eponymous ancestor 

 of the Cruithni or Picts, is " Cruithne mc. Uige mc. Luchta mc. 

 Parrtholon"; iii the Irish Nennius (BB 203 a 13) "Cruithne me. Cinge 

 mc. Luchtai m. Parrthalan." In the same tract (206 a 34) the name is 

 also Parthai, geniti-\-e of Partha. E^■eu if we suppose the scribe to have 

 substituted the more familiar name I'artholon for Partha as ancestor of 

 the Picts, we could not well disconnect the two names. The ending -Ion 

 may represent -launos or -\-ellaunos ; but if so the long vowel would indicate 

 that the Irish borrowed the name from Cymric with a Cymric pronunciation. 

 Such a borrowing would also account for the initial P. Can Parth- be a 

 Pietish equivalent of the Cymric Pret- , Irish Cruth- = 'Qret-, Qrit- (Ogham 

 Qritti, Lugu- qrit), whence Cruithni ? It seems to recur as eponym of the 



