"warlike: chief of the intrepid. Unboundedly generous: the delight of majesty. A wall of unextinguished fire: rage unremitting. A champion replete with battles; directing the 66 rage of heroes." But in the midst of all this fire, the bard does not forget his own particular intereft. In another flanza, he addreffes himself to Gaull thus-" Lover of conftant defolation: "fon of the great Morna. Generous to poets: refpite to war"riors. A tribute on nations: the downfall of foreigners.' This poor literal attempt at tranflation, falls infinitely short of the original, which I have here inferted. "Goll mear Mileata: Ceap na Crodhachta. "Scearc na fior fhoghla: mac mear mor Mhorna. "Fial re Filidhaibh: fgis ar Curradhuibh, "Cios ar Chineadhuibh: dith ar Danaraibh." In what great reverence this great order of men were held, and how facred their perfons, even in the midst of slaughter, may be collected by the following anecdote, recorded in the Leabhar-Lecan, and taken from the Book of Leinfter. In the fourth century, Eochaidh the monarch was defeated by Eana, king of Leinster, at the battle of Cruachan. In this battle Eana killed Cetmathach, poet laureat to the monarch, “ although (fays my author) he fled for refuge under the shields of the "Leinfter troops." For this foul action he got the epithet of Cinfealach, and which name defcended to his pofterity: it denotes, the foul or reproachful head. If this had not been deemed an unexampled inftance of barbarity, no doubt it would 66 not not be transmitted to pofterity, in the manner we fee it. What power the poet had over his auditory, in thofe days of heroifm, we may collect from the following. When the famous Attila, king of the Huns, and who was called the Scourge of God, admitted Leo I. and his retinue into his prefence; after entertaining them nobly, two Scythian bards were admitted, and advancing towards Attila, they recited a poem in which his military atchievements, and those of his followers were celebrated. The Huns were in raptures, fome exulting with joy, at the remembrance of their former exploits; others lamenting their inabilities to gain fresh laurels; but all affected beyond description. We fee his humanity equal to his bravery, by granting that peace to the request of this prelate, which all the powers of Italy could not procure from him. The life of this prince furnishes us with a ftriking instance of his great good fenfe and moderation, and how much the Scythic nations detefted fulsome adulation. After laying waste a confiderable part of Italy, he was presented with a copy of verses by Marullus, a Calabrian poet; but when he understood that this contemptible parafite attempted to derive his pedigree from the gods; and even, after the polite Roman manner, to deify himself, he loft all patience; commanded the poem to be burnt, and would have made him undergo the fame fate, but for the reverence in which he held the poetic tribe. A.M. 3970 CHA P. III. Of Conaire the Grand-miflakes in the genealogy of this house corrected, and the national annals defended-its different branches pointed out-impofes a tribute on the people of Leinfter—his other acts to his death-of Lughaidh, Connor, and Criomthan, his fucceffors. PER ERSUADED that the curious reader will be far from confidering the two laft chapters as digreffions from my fubject, I again resume the historic part. Conaire, by the defeat and death of Nuadha, was proclaimed monarch. He was the fon of Edeirfgoil, of the Erenochs of Munster, a branch of the royal line of Heremon, from whom the Dalriada of Scotland, and of course his present majesty are defcended. In our annals he is called More, or the Great ; and in the Book of Reigns, Conaire na N'or Sgiath, or Conaire of the Golden Shield, as he ufed none other in battle. The generations allowed from Fiacha, the son of Aongus, to this prince, are certainly too many; but a certain modern writer, inftead of labouring to explain or correct this mistake, boldly advances from it, that the whole of our early history is bardish invention! An affertion fo rafh and inconfiderate merits no ferious animadverfion; fince, if it were to have any weight, we must at the fame time give up as a fable, the early histories of all the nations in the world, not even excepting the Jews! It is to be remembered that Aongus had acquired, for his fon Fiacha, large poffeffions in Ulfter; and there it was that Olioll, the son of Fiacha fettled, and from those lands was he furnamed Aron. Later writers writers have not with precifion attended to the differences between the Irish Righ, and Airrigh; the firft denoting a king in the full meaning of the word, the other a feudatory prince. What number of children Olioll had, we are not told. It is more than probable that he had a good many, each of which retained the title of Airrigh. This, it is to be prefumed, was again the cafe of his eldest fon and fucceffor, Suin. Deaghadh was driven out of thefe poffeffions of his ancestors, and so highly protected in Munster by Duach, as to fucceed him to that crown. In a confiderable time after, the fucceffors of this Deaghadh were expelled Munster by force of arms, and at length fettled in North Britain. Now though these undoubtedly had their bards and antiquarians, as well as the other great families; and that we know to a certainty, that the celebrated poet Forchern, who wrote the Rules for Poetry, and Tracts upon the Laws, was the antiquarian of Conraoi, nephew to Hiar, and grandfon of Deaghadh; yet fucceeding bards, not diftinguishing between the words Righ, and Airrigh, made of the different children of each prince fo many kings, and by this means unneceffarily multiplied the generations. Thus Deaghadh, the fourth in defcent from Aongus, who reigned monarch of Ireland from A. M. 2778 to 2808, is in fome genealogies made eleven generations from him, though the distance between the death of Aongus, and the reception of Deaghadh in Munfter is but 108 years! Again, Edeirfgeoil, who was the grandson of Deaghadh, and conftantly called Mac ui Jar, or the fon of O'Hiar, is placed as great grandfon to this O'Hiar, the fon of Deaghadh! The fame, or very near the fame degree of inaccuracy we experience in the genealogy of the house of Ir, before the birth of Chrift. The power of this last house, was nearly annihilated in the fourth century, as was that of the Clana Deaghadh a little earlier. Are we to expect then, that their ge nealogies nealogies fhould be preferved with the fame accuracy as the Heberian and Heremonian lines, who may be faid to exist even at this day? furely not! It is recorded in the Book of Munfter, that in the third century Olioll Flan-more, who fucceeded his father in that kingdom, having no iffue of his own, left the crown to his brother, on condition that he should be placed in the regal lift, not as his brother but as his father. May not the same spirit have actuated other princes (and I am certain it has) to act a similar part, in order to. extend the chronology of their different families? And would not fuch be a much more natural fuppofition, than to reject entirely one of the best preserved, and the most ancient histories in the world, for a few inaccuracies, and these in the genealogies of one or two families only, whofe power ceafed foon after the birth of Chrift. The Septuagint tranflation of the Bible makes Cainan, the father of Sala, and in this it is followed by the evangelift St. Luke, and by St. Auguftin; whereas the Hebrew text makes Sala the fon, not the grandson, of Arphaxad, and this is fupported by the authority of St. Jerome, and by the council of Trent. If then we fee this difcordance in the four firft generations from Noah, fhall we be furprised, that a family driven from their first poffeffions in Ulfter, in a couple of centuries after, obliged to retire back to the North again, from their tenures in Munster, and from thence looking for new fettlements in North Britain? Shall we, I repeat it, be furprised, that mistakes fhould rife in their genealogies, and that brothers and contemporaries fhould be taken. for fons and fucceffors, by antiquarians no ways interested in the enquiry? As this fept has been diftinguished from the other branches of the Heremonians, by the names of Ernains, and Deaghades; fo the particular race of this Conaire, are fometimes called Siol Conaire, |