146 Proceedings of the Royal Irish Academy. 



Part-rige people who, though thej inhabited an extreme western region in 

 Ireland to the west of Loch Mask, retained the letter p in their speech and 

 were, therefore, probably not of Gaelic origin. The neighboiuhood of Tiiam 

 was inhabited bj- a Pictish race, the SogaLn, untU the uiuth century ; and 

 some of the same race were subject to the nders of Ui Maine long afterwards. 

 I am, therefore, inclined to believe that the Partrige were Picts, that Partha, 

 ancestor to the Picts, supplied their eponym, and that the stoi-y of Partholon 

 is a legend of the Picts, symbolizing perhaps the antiquity of their race and 

 its overthrow in Ireland It will be observed that in Z (I.) the race of 

 Partholon is destroyed, not by pestilence, but by a hostile race, the 

 Conchinn or Hound-heads (perhaps High-heads, i.c. the tall folk, for 

 con- = cuno- may give either meaning). The writer promises to tell more 

 about this event. But in the tract as it now exists, the story of the 

 pestilence is briefly substituted (II.). Here we have additional proof of late 

 tampering. 



rV. Nemtd. — I have failed to discover any consistent reckoning among 

 the various periods assigned to the beginning and end of Nemed's colony. 

 At least two distinct accounts, based on different chronologies, are here 

 combined in one ; for it is twice stateil that Nemed's arrival was 470 years 

 before the end of the Assyrian Kingdom ; it is twice stated that his colony 

 lasted for 2-30 years ; and it is twice implied that it overlapped the period of 

 the Medea, who follow the Assyrians. The Irish quatrains quoted in this 

 section show interpolation, since they cannot have belonged to the original 

 of Z. 



VIII. Mil. — We have here the oldest known version of the legend of 

 Mfl, and the vast difference between this and the later forms of the legend, 

 which are typified in Keating's narrative, shows how the story of prehistoric 

 Ireland developed in the early Christian period. There is little in the legend 

 of Mil, early or late, that bears the semblance of Celtic tradition. In almost 

 every detail it shows the work of the penman and the Latinist. The ancient 

 Irish writers searched their Latin authors for names that would suggest an 

 origin for the IrisL' The writer of this story hit upon the name Iberi, not 

 the Iberi of western Europe, but the Iberi who dwelt south of the Caucasus, 

 and with whom the Romans came in contact imder Pompey and again under 

 Trajan. The resemblance of this name to Hiberio and Hibemia was all that 

 could be desired. Later writers substituted the Scythi for the Iberi because 

 Scythi resembled Scotti.' They introduced Breogan from Irish tradition as 



'Tbe map of " Orbii teTrarum Becundam Eratofthenem et Strabonem " in Spniner'e Atlaa 

 Antiqutu (Gothae, Mt>cccL.) showi clearly the material on which the story of the migratian« of 

 the Gsedhil vu founded. 



' This nibstittitiao already appear* at the end of the eighth century in Nennius. 



