O'Reilly — Ancient Water-mUh, Native and Foreign. 59 



passages may be found scattered through our Irish Annals, in whicli 

 allusion is made to mills. Most writers who have mentioned the 

 subject seem to take it for granted that ■vrater-mills must have been 

 iiitroduced into Ireland by Eoman ecclesiastics, or at all events from 

 some country subject to Roman sway, especially as it is pretty well 

 ascertained that a mill of some kind was usually at each Roman 

 station in Britain ; and a decisive evidence seemed to be afforded by 

 the similarity or rather identity of the Irish and Latin names for a 

 mill. A little fui'ther examination of the question may perhaps 

 show that this is not so certain, at least so far as the North of 

 Ireland is concerned." The writer then examines the philological 

 argument first. He cites Cormac's Glossary, and discusses the 

 derivation of the Irish term Ifuilean. The forms in which it appears 

 in the modern languages which are kriown to be directly descended 

 from the Latin, such as the Italian, Spanish, French, Walloon, &c., 

 are mulino (It.) : molino (Sp.) ; moulin (Fr.) ; molin (Walloon). 

 " But," he continues, " if we examine further, we shall find the very 

 same root, Kttle more changed than in the above examples in a 

 variety of other languages, which can claim an origin as independent 

 as the Latin, and are spoken by nations who were never influenced by 

 Roman sway." He then gives a table of the equivalents for the word 

 ' mill ' as used in the chief languages of Europe, exclusive of the 

 four already mentioned, twenty-eight in all. In each case the name 

 given is a slight modification of the word 'mill.' This slightly 

 modified name is found in countries extending fi'om the shores of the 

 Mediterranean to the far North, and from the coasts of Spain and 

 Ireland to the extremity of Russia. To complete the chain we 

 have only to note further, that in Persian mal is ' to grind,' and 

 that in Sanskrit, the old language of India, tnalana signifies ' rubbing 

 or grinding.' The root is therefore common to all the extensive class 

 of languages known as the Indo-European family, as well as to 

 several outlying districts not included among them. There can be 

 little doubt, therefore, that it is one of extreme antiquity, and cannot 

 be claimed exclusively by the Latin any more than by the Celtic." 



(p. 9.) — He then discusses the probability of the Romans having 

 introduced the water-mill into the British Isles. He shows that the 

 hand-mill was no doubt in extensive use from a remote period, not 

 only in Italy, but all over Europe and the East. It must have been well 

 known to the Gauls and Britons in Caesar's time, as he speaks of 

 their ^'moUta cibaria,^^ or ground breadstuff s. 



(p. 10.) — " The water-mill does not appear to have been a Roman 



