Keating's wrath by his audacious attempt to trace the pedigrees of the Irish gentry, and to assert that the MacMahons, who were lineally descended from Colla da Chrioch, son of Eochaidh Doimlén, son of Cairbre Lifeachair, Monarch of Ireland, were of English extraction, and descended from the house of Fitz Urse. Many, too, are the deficiencies of Meredith Hanmer, Doctor of Divinity, and the defects of his Chronicle, which commences with laudable precision "three hundred yeeres after the flood." For had he not the hardihood to challenge S. Patrick's right to be called the Apostle of Ireland, and to mention his predecessors Colmán, Declán, Ailbe, Ibar, and Ciarán, and to ascribe the discovery of S. Patrick's Purgatory to another Patrick, an abbot who lived in A.D. 850. But, worst of all, he ventured to deny the Irish origin of our island Hercules, Fionn MacCumhail, and to give him a Danish (Keating wrongly says "British "\ pedigree. In a word, all these writers and others, Barclay and Moryson among them, were, according to Keating, utterly devoid of the qualifications required by an historian, and whether "from malice or ignorance" were unfit to essay the task. They seemed to follow the example of the beetle which selects the nastiest thing, rather than that of the bee which chooses the sweetest places to alight upon. They wilfully pass over all that was commendable and noble in Irish life and customs, and "dwell upon the manners of the lower and baser sort of people." Those of us who have read the histories of which Keating complains can not but feel that he had just cause of complaint; and that the worst types of Celtic life were described, while the best were overlooked, simply because the writers were "beetles" not "bees." But here it to be observed that if the history of Ireland has been drowned by the cold water of its foes, it has been no less buried under the dry dust of its friends, for there can be nothing less stimulating to the eager student than the Irish annals, say those of the Four Masters. Here a veritable mine of information lies buried beneath a pile of ancient dust, which, like the gravel dust of Europe, contain many treasures for those who can afford the time and means to dig and delve through layers of waste and worthless heaps before they strike the vein of ore. On the other hand, no one could describe Keating as dull. There are many entertaining pages in his work, and even if one takes exception to the length and doubtfulness of the pedigrees and legends he records, one cannot but admire his ingenuity. Is it not refreshing to a tired imagination to be informed that hundreds of years before the Deluge, Ireland was visited by three daughters of Cain, with Seth, the son of Adam or MacAdam, the ancestor, doubtless, of the MacAdams, who gave their name to Cadamstown? For, as the ancient poet sang : The three fair daughters of the cursed Cain, These distinguished dames, one of whom, Banba, gave her name to the island, were followed in remote ages by three strangers, Caffo, Laighne, and Luasat, precisely "twelve months before the Flood." But these unhappy "men of strength and fit for war," who were driven here by a storm, were unfortunately drowned in the Deluge at a place called Tuath Inbhir. But, according to "some records of the kingdom," which Keating mentions "out of respect," the first really historic personage who visited the island was Ceasar, the daughter of Bith, a niece of Noah, but whom the patriarch refused to receive into the Ark. She and some of her companions, whose names have been preserved in the Psalter of Cashel, with due consideration for future historians, landed in Connacht. There Bith, Ceasar's husband, died on Sliabh Beatha, now Slieve Beagh, on the borders of Tyrone, where his cairn is shown at Carnmór, near Clones, and Ceasar herself died of grief at Carn Ceasra in Connacht "six days before the rising of the Flood." Camden had, therefore, some ground for his assertion that "the island was not without reason called the ancient Ogygia by Plutarch, for they begin their histories from the most remote memory of antiquity, so that the antiquities of other nations are modern compared with theirs." Noah's descendants in the order Japhet, Ham, and Shem seem to have been represented by the ancient inhabitants of Eire. Parthalón, a Scythian, with his comrades were of the posterity of Japhet, according to Dr. Meredith Hanmer and Keating. Parthalón, however, who happened to be a parricide, "a boy who killed his father," was followed by the furies from Greece, and he, with all his followers, died of a plague, within the space of a week, at Benn-Eadair, or the Hill of Howth, having possessed the plain of Sean-mhaghEalta Edair (Shan-va-alta-edar), or the old plain of the flocks of Edar, which was also called Maghnealta, or Moynalty, the plain of flocks, which lay between Howth and the Dublin Mountains, or may be the old name of Clontarf, as Professor Murphy suggests, the flocks being the sea-birds. On the Dublin hills near Tallaght there may be to-day sepulchral remains of Partholanus and his band; for Tallaght was known to the Four Masters as Taimhleacht-mhuintire-Pharthalóin, or the plague-grave of Parthalon's people. In the time of Partholanus, according to Hanmer, “ many of the cursed seed of Cham (Ham) arrived on this island with their captain Oceanus, the sonne of Cham, called of some Mena, of Moses Mitzraim." These were of great stature and strength, and after a time engaged in battle with the sons of Japhet, who annihilated them, but, neglecting the burial of the dead, died themselves of the plague which left its name to Tallaght. This was the end of Partholanus, and the country was desolate once more, cepting a few silly soules scattered in remote places." ex Then Nemedius, of Japhet's line, came with his three sons, and partitioned Ireland between them, and in his time, descendants of Shem appeared in the shape of "vagabond Africans." These were quite celebrated people in their way. They rejoiced in the name of Fomhoraigh, which Keating explains as searobbers, but which is anglicised into Fomorians. Piracy was their occupation, as it was of the Vikings of a later and more prosaic age. These sea-robbers seemed to have been great builders. Keating tells us that they built two royal seats, one called Cinneich at Ioubhniallain, and the other, Rath Ciombhaoith in Seimhne, for the Nemedians, who rewarded their architects by slaying them, and with Irish irony giving them a burial in terra firma at Doire Lighe, or the stone by the oak tree. It would be of great advantage to us if we could locate these places. There are, however, many localities of the name Cinneich, the head or the hill of the horse, which may appear in Kinnetty as well as in Kineagh, in the south as well as in the north of Ireland. Ioubhniallain may stand for Uibh-Niallain (uibh, abl. case of Ua, grandson, generally written O), and would correspond, therefore, with Hy Niallain, an ancient tribe, who occupied the baronies of O'Neilland in Armagh. The other place, Raith Ciombhaoith, may well be called after Cimbaoth, one of the famous trio of kings, who agreed to reign for seven years in alternate succession, and who had the good or bad fortune to marry Macha of the golden hair, daughter of Aedh-ruadh, the first of the three Kings, and foundress of Ard-macha or Armagh, and to escape, as far as we can tell, from the servitude to which that determined dame consigned the sons of Dithorba, the third monarch, of whom Tigernach writes. But this may be too venturesome an anticipation. It is, however, quite possible that Ptolemy, the geographer of the second century, refers to the place. For he mentions Isamnion Akron, or the Point of Seimhne (now Island Magee ?), in which district the Rath of Cimbaoth was built. Nor is it improbable that one of these "royal seats was further south. For we are informed by Keating that the first battle which Nemedius fought with the Fomorians after their coming was at Sliabh Bladhma, or the Slieve Bloom Mountains, in which district was the ancient Kinnetty, mentioned in the Felire of Aengus, which resembles |