The faoghar ended with the last night of samhré or summer, and is called oicha shamhna; samhf hin is inflected samhna in the genitive, as amhin is inflected amhna, a river; gamhin, gamhna, a sturk.

In attending to the division of time, the phases of the moon would naturally be used as the means of ascertaining different periods. The most obvious visible signs would most readily be the first employed for that purpose; the full moon would therefore be used very early to mark the period of twenty-eight days, or the first measure of time. We have remarked, that re signifies radically division. That word was applied to signify the moon, implying that she became the means of computation of time. Re expresses at this day every division of time, as the division of night, day, month, quarter, year; as, re na hoich, the division of night; re an la, the division of the day, &c.

If the moon claimed the earliest notice as a measure of time, the completion of her period must have very early gotten a name. Accordingly we find, that the word by which month is expressed is mias, which is expressive of an object of a round figure. A round dish or platter is called by the same name as month, mias, genitive meis. The month got that name from the moon's round orb being the visible completion of the lunar month; hence the Greek word psis for month. The Latin word mensis has depart

E

ed from the old word, which was pronounced mesis, as appears from characters inscribed on old

The Latin annus, the Greek autos, a year, is derived from the Gaelic ainn, also pronounced in the nominative fainn, a ring or orbit. Of this circumstance the Latin annulus furnishes evidence. The period of a year figured in the imagination as the completion of a circle or ring, and hence the word applied to the one came to signify the other. It may here be observed, that the Latin word circulus is the Gaelic word circle or cercle, which signifies a hoop, zone, or girdle. The Greek word xxλes is a compound of cua, round, and cul, back; a circle always presenting a round back. The common word for year in Gaelic is blighan, from a circumstance of great importance in pastoral life, the return of that season when cattle give milk, bligh a bho, milk the cow.

RATIS, SCAPHA, NAVIS.

THE inhabitants of a country washed by rivers must have been very early acquainted with the use of some machine fit to convey them by water from one side of a river to the other. As wood is

*GIBELIN. Monde Primitif, vol. iv. p. 132.

of lighter specific gravity than water, and on that element presents to the eye a floating body, it would readily occur, even to the rudest and most uncultivated beings of the human race, as a proper vehicle for transporting persons or things, to and from places separated from each other by water.

The first of these vehicles was, as may be naturally supposed, of an extremely rude and simple construction. This machine was the rath of the Gael, the ratis of the Latins, the cxidia of the Greeks.

Isidorus describes the rath of the Gael, when he tells what was understood by the ratis of the Latins. Ratis primum et antiquissimum, genus navigii, e rudibus tignis asseribusq. consertum. Festus describes them in these words; Rates vocantur tigna inter se colligata, quæ per aquas agantur. Machines of the construction described by these ancient authors, are denominated in English, rafts. This term implies a machine formed by the junction of trees or beams of wood fit to swim or float on water, when pressed by bodies of greater density, or heavier than water. It may be safely affirmed, that this was the first sort of machine used in navigating the watery element. In Gaelic, the word rath was simply and radically applied to signify a raft, but it was metaphorically applied to baile, a town or village which was surrounded or guarded by an outward fence; also it signifies, from a similar idea, a surety, or what is called in Scotland, a cau

tioner: A natural transition from the additional security afforded to the swimmer by the use of a wooden machine as a conveyance by water, to the additional surety of the obligation of one man joined with another, for performance of an engagement. With respect to the Greek word it is evident, that the Greeks lost the original appropriate term for raft; for it will be observed, that is signifies an extemporary production, any thing done quickly, without laborious exertion, and simple in construction. This term seems to have been applied, not literally, but metaphorically, to signify a raft. The word cymba, used also by the Greeks, is not of Gaelic original, so far as we know; but scapha, which is also the Greek word sap, seems more naturally to be derived from the sgo, sga, or sgof, which last the Irish use, than from the Greek verb SATTE, which signifies to dig. The Gaelic verb scapadh, which signifies to divide, to separate, is more naturally allied to the Gaelic primitive, as in its motion it divides or separates the water, than the Greek . The Gaelic word denotes a light slender boat, such as is called yawl in English.

σκαπτειν,

ςκαπτειν.

The navis of the Latins, and vas of the Greeks, bespeak a Gaelic original. In Gaelic, snamh signifies to swim; the s in the beginning of the word is often quiescent, as do snamh air an linn, to swim on the pool; here the word snamh is pronounced as if written nav, hence obviously,

the Latin word navis, and the Greek as may be allowed to originate from the same root. Navis is a generic term for any vessel that swims on water, and preserves the original meaning of the word whence it is derived, which is applicable to any body that floats or swims on water.

Labour and industry are originally produced by necessity, and improved by habit. In a country thinly peopled, where the spontaneous productions of the earth suffice for the maintenance of the inhabitants, there is no existing cause for exciting any continuous exertion of industry. Notions of property, in such a situation of society, will be slender; a sense of right of community of goods, will chiefly regulate ideas of property. As soon, however, as any degree of diligence, assiduity, and skill, is found necessary to be put in practice in the acquisition of food, the human mind universally acknowledges a principle of natural justice. This principle operates without the aid of a reasoning faculty. The occupancy of a subject, which by nature is common, forms a visible connexion between the subject and the occupant; et potior est conditio occupantis, is the rule of nature, as well as of the civil law. This visible connexion, which is as instantaneous as sight itself, is strengthened and enforced by the consideration of the application of skill and industry, as necessary means used to procure possession.

The connexion thus formed between the