Japhet. This nation, from which so many others "have fprung, have preferved the name of their proge"nitor, from the most early age after the deluge, down "to our own days."

"Cimbri, Cimbriani, Cambriani, Ombriani, Ambroni, Gombri, Cambri, or Sicambri, are no other than Gomeri or Gomeriti, written or pronounced diversely, yet in fuch a manner as never to lose fight of the original name of their great Ancestor.

"Jofephus, an hiftorian well skilled in the antiquities of nations, exprefsly fays, Gomer was the father of the Gomerians, and of the people whom the Greeks called Galati or Gauli. St. Jerom and Ifidore attest the same thing.

"The Celtes or Gauls, fays Appian, whom Plutarch calls Cimbri, were the fame people, and spoke the fame language. Zonoras attests that the Gomeri, and Gauli were the fame.

"Eratosthenes, who lived about 276 before Christ, fays, that the Toliftobrogi, were part of the Hefperian Galati, who preffed by an irruption of the Scythi paffed into Bythinia.

"It is easier to find an etymology for the name Celtes, than to prove it to be the true one. If we seek it in the Hebrew, the word Galetha, which may be read Galtha, answers our purpose, as that word fignifies, thrust out to a diftance, pushed forward. The Greek and Latin languages offer no refource in this etymology.

"If, according to Strabo, we seek the meaning of the name of every nation, in their own language, then the Celtic word Gualled, fignifying, ravaged, or having been trefpaffed on, perfectly correfponds with the hiftory of this people it is the name this injured people might properly have adopted, when pushed from their ancient fettlements by the Scythians, and preffed to the very Western extremity of Afia. The name given to this people in another part of the globe, by Eratofthenes, confirms this etymology. Toled eus te bro an injury by foreigners, now corrupted by the Bretagnes into diftoladan, is certainly the Toliftobragi of Eratofthenes,

"Galatia,

"Galatia, where they first were known by this name, fignifies the dwelling of the Galates; not of those Galates who came from Gaul conducted by Bellovefus and Sigovefus or Brennus, but of that more ancient people, who were expelled their country by the Scythians.

"From Bithynia they foon penetrated into Europe, by the Thracian Bofphorus or the Hellefpont: where Calcedon, i. e. Calfdon fignifying very deep, and Berecinthe i. c. Bere'ch hent, the forteft road, are names left by the Gomerites or Celtes, to record the route they took, and the deep ftraights they had to pafs. By a like application to the Celtic language, their progrefs may be marked, in the names of places at the extremities of the North, South and Weft of Europe.

"They were fettled in Spain long before the Phoenicians, who did not arrive there, according to Ufher, till A. M. 2750, or 1250 years before Chrift.

"The Celtes were compofed partly of Hufbandmen, and partly of fishermen or navigators of the fmall feas: the latter were known by the name of Brigantes, fo called from the name of the Veffels they conftructed on the Lake of Conflance; and no further proof need be brought of these people having inhabited Britain, than the word Brigantine still used by the English for a small fhip (t) Le nom de Brigantin, venu de leurs batimens du lac de Conftance fait encore la fait. "These Brigantes inhabited York and Northumberlandshire the capital of York was Brigantium, changed afterwards to Evoracum or Ebro, an ufual corruption, and not derived from a chimerical King Ebraufus, who never existed but in idea.

preuve

de ce

"In fine these were the most ancient inhabitants of Spain, France, Germany, Portugal, England, and of Ireland in part."

(t) Probably from Brugh a House, as in the Irifh and Chinefe, Long fignifies a Ship and a House, and in the Syria, Neufa Navis, templum, Edificium.

That

:

That these Celtes were the primitive inhabitants of Spain, France, the Britannic Illes, &c. is most probable. Our Magogian Scythi acknowledge, they found all those places inhabited on their arrival. In Ireland they fay, there were 200 families only, dwelling chiefly on the Sea Coast. Of England they are filent but according to the most learned Welch Antiquaries, they not only must have driven out the Cimri, but remained long in the Island, to have given names to all the great features of that Country, which they acknowledge to have been preserved, and which cannot be derived in the Welch language, but are all to be found in the Irish.

Not like the Celtes, (who to use the words of Monf. Brigante, n'avoient d'autres monumens que denoms de leur langues qu'ils donnoient à leurs Colonies, & aux Villes qu'ils conftruifoient, ils ont été plus durables que d'autres elevés à plus grands frais, puifq'uils font parvenus jufqua nous avec la même fignification quils avoient il y a deux ou trois mille ans). Our Fenoice Scythi have tradition, have history to produce of their emigrations, from Afia to their final fettlement in Ireland, and lastly, the Language of their ancient documents, fo very different from the Celtic, and fo conformable to the Oriental, is a strong collateral proof of that history.

It appears to me, that the great Milefian expedition from Spain to Ireland, took place, much about the fame time, that the Celtes returned from Gaul to Britain, and in their turn drove the Scythi to Ireland, and to Scotland, that is, about 500 Years before Christ, and that all Irish History relating to this part of the Globe, was abforbed in the Spanish hiftory, and Oriental traditions, except the bare mention of their arrival in Britain in the 4th Chapter, and of their conqueft of it and of part of Gaul in the 8th Ch.

In the following history, we have fhewn the perfe& identity of the Irish language with the ancient Perfian, in Epithets, titles of dignity, names of Priests &c. It becomes neceffary to lay fomething on this fubje& before we close the introduction.

It is impoffible to affert pofitively that the Irish language is the fame as the ancient Perfian was, because, what the old Perfian was, no mortal can pretend to know with any fhadow of exa&nefs, as Sir William Jones obferves, and the Greek hiftorians can give us little or no light on this Subje&t. Yet the proofs we fhall adduce in the following Sheets, certainly amount to more than a probability.

That great traveller Chardin, whom every Orientalist must mention with reverence, enquired diligently into the ancient language of the Perfians, and declares, after all his researches, that the old Perfian language is entirely loft-in which no books are extant-and of which there are no rudiments remaining. That the Guebres who are the remains of the Parfis, have an idiom peculiar to themfelves, which is fuppofed by the Perfians in general, to be rather a jargon of their own, than a part of their ancient tongue-that, if you believe their own account, the Magi, who refided at Yeza in Carmania, have preserved this language from father to fon, after the diffolution of their Monarchy, but, that for his part he has found no reason to give any credit to their story-that they have, indeed, fome books in ftrange characters, but he cannot perfuade himself that they are old Perfian Letters, efpecially, fince they bear no kind of resemblance to those on the famous monuments at Perfepolis. (Chardin T. v. C. III.)

Now, as we shall find in Chap. 2. of this Work, that the ancient Irish did use the same sacred letters (called Ogham) as are to be found on the monuments at Perfepolis, and have also innumerable words in common with the old Perfian, ftill to be found in their Lexicons and Authors, there is great probability that the ancient Perfians were Southern Scythians, as all the Greek and Latin hiftorians aver, and Monf. Bailly has proved; and that their language was the fame; because we have more than broken Phrases or detached epithets to judge by, we have history and letters. The Turks did undoubtedly fpeak the fame Language, but the present Turkish is improved by mixing it with the modern Perfian; we can feek no affinity there. Change of Government always

effects

effects a confiderable change in the language of any Nation, so that literary and civil hiftory are very nearly allied.

The hiftory of the Perfian tongue, fays Sir William Jones, may be divided into four periods. In the infancy of Caiumeras and his descendants, it is natural to fuppofe, no great pains were taken to cultivate and polish the language, and we are affured by Herodotus, that in the reign of Cyrus, the whole education of Perfian Youth, from the Age of 5 to 20, confifted in three points only, riding, throwing the javelin and the practice of moral virtue. The Volumes of Parchment on which the Perfians were obliged by a certain law to write the Annals of their Country, mentioned by Diodorus, Sir William treats as invention, but allows that the ancient Perfians of the fecond Period, were not entire strangers to the art of compofition either in Verse or Prose.

At what period our Hiberno-Scythi had the ufe of letters, we cannot pretend to fay, but it is certain, from the Authorities we shall give of the identity of the Irish Ogham letters with those of the Monuments at Persepolis (which no one has hitherto attempted to decypher) that they brought letters with them into Ireland from Afia; Moreover, the names of all Officers of Church and State in the ancient Irish being found to be Oriental, as we collea from the Sacred Scriptures and other writings, leaves no doubt, in my opinion of the identity of the people, and of the languages having been originally the fame.

The Irish Language is the moft copious of the Univerfe it abounds in Synonima, fo much as to include the roots of all the Oriental and Occidental dialects, a ftrong prefumptive argument of the migration of the people, and of their having letters during that migration, or these words could not have flowed down to the present period, in the pure manner they are now to be found.

The Old Perfian may perhaps have been as copious: according to the learned Lexicographer, Ibn Phacreddin Angjou (u) it contained Seven dialects, four of which,

(u) In præfamine operis Pharhangh Gihanghiri,