[460] Amongst our antiquities also are found nose-rings (nasc-srion), which, stronger than any other demonstration, shows the orientalism of our Tuath-de-danaan ancestors. Their ear-rings, also, are thus defined in Comrac’s Glossary: “Arc nasc—vel, a-naisc, bid im cluas—aibh na saoreland,” i.e. a ring worn in the ears of our gentry.
[461] Dublin Penny Journal.
[462] “Si j’ai bien prouvé que Butta, Thoth, et Mercure ne sont également que le même inventeur des sciences et des arts” (Bailly).
“The Buddhists insist that the religion of Buddha existed from the beginning” (Asiatic Researches).
[463] Gentleman’s Magazine, Nov. 1822.
[464] In the entire land of Phœnicia there was but one, and that comparatively a modern one, erected no doubt after their intercourse with the Tuath-de-danaans.
[465] The play above alluded to is that of the Pænulus, or Carthaginian, in which Haono is introduced in quest of his two daughters, who, with their nurse, had been stolen by pirates, and conveyed to Calydon, in Ætolia. Thither the father repairs on receiving intelligence of the fact, and addresses a supplication to the presiding deity of the country, to restore to him his children unstained by pollution. He is made to speak in his vernacular tongue, just as natives of France are represented in our drama by Shakespeare: and so interesting is the whole—independently of the curiosity attaching to so rare a production—that I shall subjoin a portion of it for the reader.
1.
“Nith al o nim, ua lonuth secorathessi ma com syth.
An iath al a nim, uaillonac socruidd se me com sit.”
O mighty splendour of the land, renowned, powerful; let him quiet me with repose.
2.
“Chin lach chunyth mumys tyal myethii barii imi schi.
Cim laig cungan, muin is toil, mo iocd bearad iar mo sgil.”
Help of the weary captive, instruct me according to thy will, to recover my children after my fatigue.
N.B.—The first line in each of these triplets is Phœnician, the second Irish, and the third, their import, in English.
[466] “How comes it then that they are so unlearned—still, being so old scholars? for learning (as the poet saith) emollit mores nec sinit esse feros; whence, then, I pray you, could they have those letters?” He answers, “It is hard to say, for whether they at the first coming into the land, or afterwards by trading with other nations, learned them of them, or devised them amongst themselves, is very doubtful, but that they had letters anciently is nothing doubtful, for the Saxons of England are said to have their letters and learning, and learned men, from the Irish. And that also appeareth from the likeness of the character, for the Saxon’s character is the same with the Irish” (Spenser).