“The purport of the Tuath-de-danaans journey was in quest of knowledge,
And to seek a proper place where they should improve in Druidism.
These holy men soon sailed to Greece. The sons of Nirned, son of Adhnam,
Descendant of Baoth, from Bœotia sprung. Thence to the care of skilful pilots,
This Bœotian clan, like warlike heroes, themselves committed,
And after a dangerous voyage, the ships brought them to Loch Luar.
Four cities of great fame, which bore great sway,
Received our clan, in which they completed their studies.
Spotless Taleas, Goreas, majestic Teneas and Mhuiras,
For sieges famed, were the names of the four cities.
Morfios and Earus-Ard, Abhras, and Lemas, well-skilled in magic,
Were the names of our Druids; they lived in the reign of Garman the Happy.
Morfios was made Fele of Falias, Earus the poet in Gone dwelt,
Samias dwelt at Mhurias, but Abhras, the Tele-fionn, at Teneas.”
A quarrel, it would seem, ensued between them and the Fir-Bolgs on their return: and the Seanneachees, in their incapacity to separate any two events of a similar character from each other, confounded the differences which arose herefrom with the battles fought six hundred years before, between the ancestors of both parties, on the plains of Moye-tureadh!
At [page 67] I have stated that this event took place about B.C. 600. And this very circumstance it was—I mean the lateness of the date—which rendered the expedition at all needful.
The Tuath-de-danaans having been for a long time humiliated, and allowed but a mere nominal existence in a remote canton of the realm, their ritual got merged into that of the Druids. A corresponding decay had vitiated their taste for letters, while the Greeks, in proportion, rose in the scale.
Pythagoras had by this time returned from his tour to Egypt, and the fame of his acquirements had reached the Tuath-de-danaans. Naturally solicitous to court the acquaintance of an individual who had derived his information from the kindred of their ancestors,[513] they had address enough to obtain leave from the several States of the kingdom to repair to Greece, on the alleged plea of returning the visit[514] of the Argonauts to our shores many ages previously,[515] but actually with a view to gratify their predilections by philosophical inquiry.
When the meteors met, it is difficult now to decide which orb it was that emitted the greater light. But without being too much biassed by the links of patriotism, I think we may very fairly aver that our countryman communicated, depressed even as was his order at that day, as much information as he had received.[516]
Who then can any longer doubt but that this was the island of the Hyperboreans? Even the peculiarity of our language mingles in the chain of proof; as Diodorus states that “the Hyperboreans use their own natural tongue.” But were all other arguments wanting, I would undertake to prove the identity by an admission from this transcriber himself. “The sovereignty of this city,” says he, “and the care of the temple belong to the Boreades.”[517]
Now, nothing ever has puzzled etymologists so much to explore as the origin of the Irish term Bards.[518] The guesses which they have made thereat are so exceedingly amusing, that I will take leave to refresh myself, exhausted and languid as I now wellnigh am, with the outline of a few.
First, Bochart would derive it from parat, to speak!!! Wilford from the Sanscrit, varta!!! But “some learned friends of his are of opinion that it comes from bhardanan, to burthen!!! because burthened with the internal management of the royal household”!!!
I shall spare my reader any more of those caricatures, and submit to his own candour to adjudicate whether Bards could, by possibility, be anything else than the modern Englification for our ancient Boreades?