manner of their forefather, and vowed to sacrifice the blood of the sons of Cearmad "to the manes of their great-uncle," just as the Gauls of Caesar's time "sacrificed human beings as victims." Their Celtic

blood was up, the mischief was afoot. One sympathises, however, with the interesting Tuatha-de-Danann princes wrangling over heirlooms, and losing their kingdom and their beautiful and virtuous princesses, Fodhla and Banba, and Eire, who fell in battle with the Goidil. The Milesians were a wandering race, who eventually found a resting place in our little island. They are said to have been of Scythian blood and Japhet's noble line. They had, it is said, some intercourse with Moses, but no Irish chronicler gives them a Semitic origin, which fact tells somewhat against the British-Israel theory. From Magog, the son of Japhet, was descended the Scythian ruler, Feinius or Fursa, whose son, Niul, is said to have married Pharoah's daughter, the beautiful Scota. Their son, Gadelus, is the reputed ancestor of the Goidels or Gaels. According to the royal records of Tara, he was attacked and bitten, when a babe, by a serpent, but was healed by the wand of Moses, who is said to have foretold that the countries where Gadelus, or any of his race should live, would not be invested with any reptile or venomous beast. This is said to be the reason why the serpent was a favourite device of the Milesians, appearing on their banners and in their scroll work. The learning of Feinius, or Fursa and Niul, his son, was marvellous for their age. Niul, we are told in all seriousness, "erected schools and seminaries, and taught the sciences and the universal languages to the youth of Egypt." Unfortunately

for his people, Niul sympathised so greatly with the down-trodden Hebrews, that he drew upon his own race the vengeance of another Pharoah. They, under the guidance of Sru, and not Gadelas, as Hector Boetius and "such pretenders to history" relate, sailed away in four ships to the Isle of Crete, to escape the might of Egypt. From Crete they removed to Scythia, thence to Gothland, thence to Spain, back again to Egypt, back again to Gothland, back again to Spain, and, finally, these unsettled, but unconquerable colonists, after wanderings to which those of "much-enduring Ulysses and "pious' Æneas were child's play, came to Ireland, where they pitched their tents for aye. This is the record in the chronicles of Ireland, and, as Keating says—although all may not assent-unless we depend upon their authority, it is impossible to arrive at any certainty regarding the antiquities and the religious and political state of the kingdom. It has been the custom to regard the Celts as a branch of the great Aryan race, which had its original home in the northern hills of India. some philologists, Prof. Anwyl among them, arguing from the resemblance of Celtic forms of speech to the Latin, hold that there must have been some common centre of Aryan-Celtic speech in Europe, from which the Indo-European languages could have radiated eastwards and westwards, towards India, Persia, Armenia, on the one side, and Greece, Gaul, and Britain, Italy and Ireland on the other. This centre is supposed to have been the Danube valley of the modern Carinthia. But while the Aryan race impressed its language, social customs, and military ideas upon the peoples it conquered, right, left, and centre,

But

it was not always successful in making the conquered races accept their religious views—whatever they may have been-or in preventing their retention of myths, legends, and national folk-lore. This is, probably, the reason why so many incongruous ideas are found in the Celtic religions.

The Milesians derive their name from Milesius, or Gallamh grandson of Breógan (Bryan ?), from whom the Brigantes of Spain, according to Keating, were descended. Milesius was like Moses in this, that he never set foot upon the promised land, dying before the expedition set forth to avenge the death of his uncle, Ith. However, his widow, Scota, an Egyptian princess, and his eight sons, Donn, Ir, Aireach Feabhruadh, Arranan, Colpa, Heber, Heremon, and Amergin took part in the invasion which the uncles of Milesius organised. That expedition was disastrous to many of these; for Scota perished, with five of her sons, before the country was eventually divided between Heber and Heremon. The grave of the heroic Scota, who fell at Slieve Mis, in Kerry, is said to be seen between Slieve Mis and the sea, and is by the Finglas stream in Glenscoheen, or Scota's grave. Bladh, a son of Breógan, was slain on the hills which are now called the Slieve Bloom (Sliabh Bladhma), an interesting connection with the modern King's County. Other Milesian warriors, Fuad and Cuailgne, gave their names respectively to the mountains of Slieve Fuad, the highest of the Fews Range in Armagh and the Cooley Mountains (Sliabh Cuailgne) near Dundalk. The brave Tuatha-deDanann princes, whose magic proved ineffectual against the Gael, were slain, and their forces scattered

at the decisive battle of Tailltenn.

Then Heremon

and Heber, sons of Milesius, the former in the north, and the latter in the south, reigned peacefully over their provinces, until the wife of Heber, coveting the three vales of Erin, sowed strife between the brothers, who, finally, settled their dispute on the plains of Geisiol-the modern Geashill-in Leinster, where valiant Heber fell. Heremon then succeeded to the throne, and he was followed by his three sons, after whom the sons of Heber Fionn seized the throne, which became a bone of contention between the descendants of Heremon and those of Heber Fionn, and passed now into the hands of one party, and anon into the hands of the other.

King's County, is in
We read in Keating

Geisioll, or Geashill, in the the ancient territory of Offaly. (p. 154) that Eithrial, King of Ireland, grandson of Heremon, in 2766 A.M., cut down a great wood, called Magh Geisile, at Iobh Failge, which is the same plain of Geashill in Offaly; and another at Magh Rath at Iobh Eachach. Is it possible to identify this latter place with the locality now known as Thomastown, but formerly as Rath, some three miles from Kinnetty? Iobh Eachach may stand for the O'Eachach, the descendants of the Eochaidh, who gave his name to the latter place.

CHAPTER II. ·

THE RACE OF THE HORSEMAN AND AN ANCIENT RELIC.

THE Introductory Chapter dealt lightly with the general history of the early peoples of Éire. In this we shall deal more particularly with the midlands of Ireland, the country around Kinnetty, and shall select the kings of the name Eochaidh, who were connected with the district. Prof. Connellan gives an interesting note on the name Eochaidh in his translation of the Four Masters (p. 41): "Eochaidh, pronounced Eochy or Eohy, anglicised Achy, and latinized Eachadius, Accadius, and Achaius, a name of many kings and chiefs, is derived from Each or Eoch, a steed, and therefore signifies a horseman or knight." O'Flaherty in his Ogygia gives the name as Echod or Etac. Donovan in the Book of Rights interprets Eochaidh as eques or horseman. O'Reilly in his Irish Dictionary gives eocard, Eochaidh, a man's name, with genitive eatac. In Colgan's Life of S. Nennius the same genitive is given. This being aspirated would be pronounced Eathach, and is probably the latter portion of the name Kinnetty. We shall now see that quite a number of kings of the name Eochaid were connected in some way with the districts around Kinnetty.

The first of these was Eochaidh Eadgothach (2866 A.M.), or as O'Halloran explains it, Eochaidh "of many colours." If that be correct it would be this Eochaidh and not his predecessor Tighernmhas

B