125 



Greece, in the year of the world 1956, as the Book of Invasions" states, 

 278 years after the flood (OTlaherty makes the period 35 years later), 

 says : — 



The Book of Conquests mentions, but- as an affair not authenticated, 

 that before the arrival of Parthalon, Ireland was possessed by a colony 

 from Africa, under the command of Ciocall, between whom and the new- 

 comers a bloody battle was fought, in which the Africans were cut 

 off." 



Again, at page 4, the same author, referring to the arrival of the 

 E'eimhedians, or the second colonj^^ in Ireland, says — ''An African 

 colony had been settled in the north, long before the arrival of the 

 ^^eimhedians, who were far from being so barbarous as represented." 

 And then the author makes mention of their skill in constructing large 

 edifices, and of the different battles of the Eomharaigh with the Neim- 

 hedians, and of the final discomfiture of the latter — though, as we are 

 told, " they fought against the Africans with a resolution equal to the 

 desperateness of their affairs. In this battle Conning, the son of Paobhar, 

 the African chief, with most of his troops, were slain, and their principal 

 garrison. Tor Conning, levelled to the ground ; soon after which. More, 

 the son of Dela, who had been absent with his fleet, endeavouring to 

 land in this northern quarter (an island in the present Tir Connell), 

 was opposed by the Keimhedians, but after a bloody conflict these last 

 were defeated with great slaughter — such as escaped the sword perish- 

 ing in the water." 



The remainder of O'Halloran's account of the African pirates cor- 

 responds mainly with that of Keating. Of the destiny of the Pomo- 

 rians, after the landing in Ireland of the Belgae or Eii^bolgs, the third 

 colony of adventurers, nothing is said, and evidently nothing was known 

 by either O'Halloran or Keating; nor do we derive any information on 

 this subject from the compilers of ''The Annals of the Four Masters." 



It is in vain to look for the name of any tribe in Africa resembling 

 even that of the Eomorians in the works of the ancient geographers and 

 historians — in those of Strabo, Pomponius Mela, Ptoloma^us, Scylax, 

 Herodotus, Diodorus, Pliny, Solinus, and Orosius. But no argument 

 against their existence can be relied on by those who bear in mind the 

 extraordinary transmutations which names of ancient nations, tribes, 

 and countries have undergone in the course of ages, and who bear in 

 mind how the names of the same peoples and regions are differently 

 rendered in the works of the most celebrated geographers and historians 

 of antiquity. 



It is not for me to enter into any disquisition in this paper on the 

 origin, structure, or uses of those ancient monuments we designate crom- 

 lechs, and the Erench, Dolmens, which I believe to be identical vfith those 

 I have lately seen in jN'orthern Africa. But the purpose of this notice 

 makes it necessary to call attention, very briefly, to the leading points 

 in the accounts that have been given of those monuments, and the views 

 entertained of their origin and purpose by eminent arcliEeologists in those 

 countries. 



R. I. A. PROC. VOL. VIII. 



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