Bourke Ulick J. Aryan Origin of the Gaelic Race and Language
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280
BBEHON
LAWS.
"
Cormac,
the
prudent
and
good,"
Was a
sage,
a file
(or
poet),
a
prince
;
He
was
a
righteous
judge
;
Was
a
good
friend
and
companion.
Cormac
gained
fifty
battles
;
He
compiled
the
Saltair
of
Tara,
In that
saltair is
contained
The
best
summary
of
history.
3.
"
It
is
certain,"
says
O'Curry,
"
such
a
compilation
existed."
Cormac
MacArt died in the
year
266,
A.D.
4.
The
manuscript
"
Cin
Droma
Sneacta"
is said
by
Dr.
Keating
to
have
been
compiled
before
St.
Patrick's
mission
to
Erin.
"It was
compiled
by
Ernin,
son of
Duach,
son
of
Brian,
king
of
Connaught,
an
Ollamh,
and a
prophet,
and
a
professor
in
history,
and a
professor
in
wisdom
;
it
was
he
that
collected the
genealogies
and
histories of
the
men of Erin
in
one
book,
that is
the
"
Cin Droma
Sneacta."
Duach,
twenty-fourth
son,
the
youngest,
of
Brian,
King
of
Connaught,
was alive the
time
of
St.
Patrick. He is
progenitor
of
the
O'Flaherties,
the
O'Connors,
the
O
'Maddens,
0'
Murphy
s,
and
O'Ruarks
See Icur
Connaught,
edited
by
Sardinian.
5.
The
"
Seancus
Mor,"
or the
compilation
of the
Brehon
Laws now
translated,
and
edited,
were
compiled
in
the
year
A.D.
439,
under
the
direction of a
committee
of
nine three
Kings,
three
Bishops,
and
three
FilJs.
The
four
most illustrious of
these nine
were
St.
Patrick,
apostle
of
Eire
;
Laeghaire,
the
chief
monarch
of
Eire
;
and
Ros,
the chief File
of
Eire,
at that
time,
and
Benignus
.
See
Ancient Laws
of
Ireland,
preface
to
vol.
1,
Seanchus
Mor,
1865
;
-published
by
order
of
the
Government,
and
prmtediby
Alexander
Thorn,
Dublin.
O'Curry
enters
fully
into
the well-known
subject
of
OGHAM
WHITING
IN IRELAND
IN PAGAN
TIMES 281
Ogham writing.
In
eight pages
he makes
the
matter
very
plain
and certain
from
a
historic
point
of view.
Indeed there
is
no doubt
at
all
that the
pre-Christian
Gaels
of
Ireland wrote
in
Ogham.
Proofs
to
this
effect
are scattered
broadcast
in
every
page
of our
ancient
M.SS.
The
records of the
Royal
Irish
Academy
abound
in well
authenticated
facts.
Dr.
Graves
has written
very
learnedly
on the
subject
of
ancient
writing
in
Ireland
Ogham.
So
has
William
Williams,
Esq.,
of
Dungarvan
one of the
most
erudite
and accurate
antiquaries
in
Ireland.
Dr. Graves
writes
:
"
Whether
the
ancient
Irish,
before
the Christian
era,
possessed
a
primitive
alphabet differing
essentially
from that
in
use in
other
parts
of
Europe,
is a
question
which has
been
debated
by
scholars
with
great
earnestness. Those who maintain
the
affirmative,
appeal
to the concurrent
authority
of
the most ancient
manu-
script
histories,
according
to which an
alphabet
called
Ogham
was invented
by
the
Scythian progenitors
of the
Gael
race,
and
was introduced into Ireland
by
the Tuatha
de
Danann,
about
thirteen centuries before
the birth
of
Christ.
They
also refer
to
the oldest
romances,
which
contain
frequent
allusions to
the
Ogham,
either
for the
purpose
of
conveying intelligence,
or
in
sepulchral
inscrip-
tions
on
pillar
stones
erected
in
honor
of
distinguished
persons.
Finally,
they point
to
existing
monuments
of
this
very
kind,
presenting
inscriptions
in the
Ogham
cha-
racter,
and
argue,
from their rudeness
and
other
circum-
stances,
that
they
must be ascribed to
a
pagan
period.
"
Those,
on the other
hand,
who dissent
from
this
hypo-
thesis,
allege
that
(1)
the
legendary
accounts
of
the inven-
tion
of
the
Ogham
bear
all
the
marks of fiction
;
and
they
contend
that
the
nature of this
alphabet,
in which
the
Aowels
and
consonants
are
separated,
furnishes
internal
282
WHERE THE
TRUTH
LIES.
evidence of its
having
been
contrived
by
persons
possess-
ing
some
grammatical
knowledge
and
acquainted
with
alphabets
of
the
ordinary
kind.
They
impugn
the
autho-
rity
of
romantic
tales
by
questioning
the
antiquity
of
those
compositions.
Lastly, they
assert
that
a
consider-
able number of
the
existing
Ogham
monuments are
proved
by
the
emblems and
inscriptions
which
they
bear,
to
belong
to Christian
times."
The truth
lies in
both
Ogham
was
written first in
Pagan,
and afterwards in
Christian
times.
HARRIS'S
VIEWS.
"
Now,
it
is absurd to
think,"
says
Harris,
(Aniiiuities
of
Ireland,
vol.
ii.
p.
25.)
if
Benignus
and
Fiech
had
before been
unacquainted
with the
Irish
characters,
that
they
could
be so soon such
masters of
the
language
as to
write
elegantly
and
poetically
in
it. But
the truth
of
the
matter
seems
to
be this.
The
Irish,
before
their
conver-
sion,
were
utterly
unacquainted
with
the
Latin
letters,
without
the
knowledge
of
which,
St.
Patrick
considered
that his new converts
were
utterly incapable
of
reading
the
Scriptures, reciting
the
offices
of
the
Church,
and
reading
other
good
books
This,
therefore,
was the cause which induced
that
indefatigable preacher
of the
Gospel
to
dictate the Latin
alphabet
to
his
new
converts,
to enable them
to instruct
others.
On
the other
hand,
his new
converts,
being
well skilled in
their
native
letters, became,
with
all
the ease in
the
world,
proficient
in
the
Latin
elements so
much so that we
are told
St.
Fiech
was
so
great
a
proficient,
that he
became
master
of
the
psalter,
some
say
in
one
day,
others,
in
fifteen
days
;
of which
great
progress Hugh
Ward,
making
mention,
expressly interprets
the
alphabet
taught
by
St.
Patrick
to
be
the Latin
elements. Thus much I
thought
abso-
lutely necessary
to observe
upon
the
unguarded
expres-
AN ORIGINAL
ALPHABET.
283
sion of
Boilandus,
because,
should his
notion
prevail,
there would
be
an
end
put
at
once
to
all the
antiquities
and to
the
history
of
Ireland,
antecedent to
the
introduc-
tion
of
Christianity
amongst
us."
Again,
he
writes in
same
chapter,
iil,
vol. ii.
:
"
Upon
the
strictest
enquiry
I
could
never find
any alphabet,
no,
not the Eunic
itself,
in
the
structure
or
order,
like
the
Ogham
or
"
Betli-luis-nuin"
elements.
It
follows,
there-
fore,
that as
there
was no
prototype
to
copy
them
from,
they
must be
original.
What
I
mean
by
original
lan-
guage
here,
is
not the
first
language
spoken,
but
I mean
such as
were introduced into
the
world
upon
the
confu-
sion
of the
first
language."
WHAT HAVERTY SAYS.
Haverty,
as a
living
authority,
whose
history
of Ire-
land
is a solid work full of
matter,
at
once well selected
and
truthful,
says
:
"
There are
indisputable
authorities
to
prove
that the
Latin mode of
writing
was known
in Ire-
land some
time
before St. Patrick's
arrival,
as
there
were
unquestionably
Christians in the
country
before that
time."
We hold on
the
authority
of Cuan
O'Lochain,
who
held a
distinguished
position
in
this
country
in
the be-
ginning
of the eleventh
century,
that the
Psalter of Tara
did exist and was
compiled
by
Cormac
MacArt
in
the
third
century,
and
consequently
that
the
Pagan
Irish
possessed
a
knowledge
of
alphabetic writing
at least in
that
ago.
See
Petries
History
of
Tara
Hill.
In
page
38
of his
history
of
Ireland,
Mr.
Haverty
writes
:
"
Let it
be borne
in
mind
that these views
are
the
gist
of the
testimony
without
end
supplied
by
all the
ancient
Irish
annals."
Cormac,
it
is
said,
at
the
close
of
his
life adored
the
true
God,
and
attempted
to
put
down
Druidism
and
idol
284
IRISH
PAGAN
WRITERS.
worship.
It
is,
at
all
events,
certain
that
he
endeavoured
to
promote
education.
He
established three
colleges,
one
for
war,
another
for
history,
and
the
third for
jurispru-
dence. He collected
and re-modelled
the
laws,
and
pub-
lished
the
code,
which remained
in
force
until
the
Eng-
lish
invasion,
and for
many
centuries
after that
time,
out-
side
the
English pale.
He
assembled
the
bards and
chroniclers
at
Tara,
and
directed them to collect the
an-
nals
of Ireland and to continue
the
records
of
the coun-
try
from
year
to
year, making
them
synchronize
with
the
history
of other countries.
Cormac
himself,
it
is
said,
had been
the
inventor
of this kind of
chronology.
These annals
formed what
is
called the
"
Psalter of
Tara,"
In his
old
age
he
wrote
a
book
called
"
TeagasgJ
na
Big,"
or
the instruction
of
kings,
which
is
still in
existence.
The
"Psalter
of
Tara," however,
has been lost.
Again
:
"
We
have
ample
reason to
believe
that Ire-
land,
in
her
days
of
paganism,
had reached not
merely
a
point
relatively
advanced
in
the social
scale,
but that
Christianity
found her
in a state of
intellectual
and
moral
preparation
superior
to that of
most
other
countries."
IRISH
AUTHORS
OF THE
PAGAN PERIOD.
"
The names
of
several
persons
who
had
distinguished
themselves
as
poets
or
legislators
in the time
of
paganism
are
still
preserved,
as well as
some of
the
compositions
attributed
to them.
Among
those
were
Ollam
Fodla,
by
whom the
Feis
(
or
Parliament)
of
Tara
was instituted :
2.
Cimbaeth and other
kings
of his
period.
3.
Moran,
the chief
judge
of
Ferach the
fair
and
just,
at the
close
of the first
century.
4. Cormac Mac
Art,
who
has
left us
a book
of
"
Royal
precepts,"
and
caused
the
Psalter
of
Tara to
be
compiled,
third
century.
CONCLUSIONS
285
A
few
of the
pre-Christian
bards
or
poets
are
:
1.
Amergin,
brother
of
Heber and
Heremon,
to whom
three
poems,
still
extant,
are
ascribed.
2.
Congal,
the son
and
poet
of
King Eochy
Feileach
(before
the
coming
of
Christ).
3.
Adhna,
chief
poet
of
Ireland.
4.
Forchern
and
Perch
ertne,
the
author
of the
first
Irish
grammar,
Uraicact-na-n-Eigeas,
or
"
the
rudimentary
lesson
of
the learned
;
"
ur" means fresh or
noble,
or
"
urai"
surety,
support,
foundations!
principle;
"caet,"
a
lesson
;
"
eigeas,"
those
who
aspire
to
"
eagna,"
wisdom
;
or
as
it
were
"
eagna-aos,"
wisdom-race,
wisdom-class,
all who
love
learning.
"
Men
like
these could
not have been
produced
in
an
entirely
uncivilized
state
of
society."
"
The
noble
language
of ancient Ireland had
already
in
their
time
attained
a
high degree
of
perfection,
being
most
copious
in
primitive
roots
and
expressive
com-
pounds."
p.
59.
In
Ogygia,
part
III.
p.
214,
245,
Koderick
O'Flaherty
devotes
thirty-one
pages
to the
discussion
of
this
subject,
chiefly,
however,
in
support
of the
Ogham
writing.
CONCLUSIONS.
From
all that
has been
proved
and
known
historically,
the
following
propositions
may
be
regarded
as
true.
1.
It
is certain
that the
golden
age
of
Irish
literature,
ecclesiastical,
civil,
and scientific
as
far
as
science had
been
then
known,
medical,
astronomical,
legal,
was
within
the
period
from
432 A.D.
to
800.
2. It is certain
from
the
Tripartite
Life
of
St.
Patrick
that
he
gave
the
Roman
alphabet,
or
primers
in
the
Latin
language,
to
all
the
ecclesiastics
of Ireland.
3.
It
is
certain
that the
Drtids
before
St.
Patrick's
coming
to
Irelar.d
wrote books
a..xl
studied
manuscripts.
236
CERTAINTY
OF
CERTAIN
POINTS.
4.
It
is certain that
in
the
pre-christian
period
the
Druids and
the
learned Gaels made
use of
a
secret
writing
called
"
Ogham,"
of
which there
were
many
kinds,
some-
thing
like the
modern
shorthand,
and
that
even in
the
Christian
period
this
kind
of
writing
was not and is
not
to
this
day
wholly
forgotten.
5. It
is
not certain whether the
books known in
Ireland
a
century
or
longer
anterior to the
coming
of
St.
Patrick
were written
in
Roman
letter,
or not.
O'Curry (Manu-
script
Materials
of
Irish
History,
p. 472)
gives
it
as his
own
opinion
that
some
books
at
least
were
not
written
in
the
Ogham
of
the
time,
but
in
the Eoman
character,
a
knowledge
of which
they
had
learned on the
continent of
Europe.
His
words are
:
"
So
far,
then,
for
our
accounts of
the
possession
of
an
independent
alphabet
and mode of
writing
from the
most ancient
times
by
the
pre-christian
Gael,
or Scots of Erin
(and
the
Britons
appear
to
have
had
a
similar
mode
of
writing,
at
least
until
they
lost
it,
as well
as their
native
literature
itself,
under the
Saxon
rule)
;
bat whether
the
books of
Erin were
written in
this
Alphabet (the
"Ogham"),
whether,
for
instance,
the
"
Cuilmenn,"
the
"
Saltair
of
Teamhair,"
and
the
book
of
"
Droin Sneacta" were
written in
it,
is
quite
a
different
question.
My
own
opinion
is that
they
were not written
in
Ogham,
but that
they
were
written in the
popular
Roman
characters
of
the
time."
p.
472.
6.
The
only
historic
point
which,
in the
writer's
opinion,
is
doubtful,
is
whether or not
the books
com-
piled
by
the Druids were written in
Aryan
letters
resembl-
ing
those
used
by
the Latins or
Greek,
or
Phoenicians;
or in
their
own
secret
characters. The
writer's
views
are,
that
books
were
written
in
the characters
peculiar
to
each.
The Druids
wrote
in
Ogham,
those
works
intended
WRITING
MATERIALS.
287
for
the druidicial
order,
or
for
private
use
;
the
public
records
like the
"
Seancus
Mor" were
written
in
a'common,
well-known,
and not secret
letter,
be
it Roman or
Aryan.
THE
MATERIAL
MADE
USE
OF IN
"WRITING.
Without
entering
into
detail,
the
opinion
of learned
writers
on
this
subject
may
be
fully
taken :
It
is certain
that,
besides
stone,
tablets
of
wood
were
employed
by
the
pre-Christian
Gaels
of Ireland.
The
very
name
(feada)
in
Irish,
to this
day,
for
tablets
and
writing
material
prove
this
truth. See
Ogygia,
part
III,
p.
233.
See
Harris's
Ware,
vol.
II,
c. III.
'Carry's
Manuscript
Materials,
with
appendix
II,
p.
470.
.
WHAT
LIGHT
DOES
THE
SCIENCE OF
COMPARATIVE PHIL-
OLOGY
THROW ON THE
QUESTION.
The
following
passage
will serve
as
a
prelude
to the
answer.
It
is taken
from
O'Curry's
posthumous
work,
edited
by
the President
of
the
Queen's
College,
Cork
:
"
While
on
the
one hand no one
can
deny
that
the
discovery
of
the use of
metals marked an
era
in
human
culture,
and
that,
previous
to that
discovery,
the
tools
and
weapons
were
made
everywhere
of
stone,
bone,
and
horn
;
on
the
other,
there
is no
real
evidence
that
the
art
of
making
bronze,
or
even
copper, preceded
that
of
making
iron.
According
to
the results of
linguistic
paleontology,
ascertained
by
M.
Adolphe
Pictet,
the
Aryans,
at
the
period
of
their
dispersion,
were
not
only acquainted,
with
the
four
metals
gold,
silver,
copper,
and
iron
but
knew
how
to make
bronze
a
fact
which
M.
Pictet
thinks
implies
a
knowledge
of tin
If
we
admit
M.
Pictet's
conclusions
and
whatever
differ-
ence
may
exist
as
to certain
steps
in
theanalysis,
there
is
no doubt
that
they
are,
in
the
main,
cor-
rect
all
the Iranches
of
the
Aryan
race
carried
with
them,
288
THE
ARYAN VIEW ILLUSTRATED.
as
they
migrated
from
the
original
home
of
the
race,
a
Jcnoidsdge
of
the
principal
metals. The
Romans, Kelts,
Greeks, Germans,
and
Slaves,
all
alike
knew
iron
;
and
consequently
the use
of the terms
"
stone
age,"
"
bronze
age,"
or
"
iron
age,"
are,
except
in a
very
limited
sense,
incorrect
as
regards
those
branches,
though
they
might
be
strictly
true,
if
applied
to the
parent
Aryans."
By
a
parity
of reason
the
writer
states
:
If
we
admit Mr. Pictet's
conclusions
all
the
branches
of
the
Aryan
race carried with
them,
as
they migrated
from the
original
home,
a
knowledge
of the
arts
and
sciences,
and
a
knowledge
of letters. The
Eomans,
Kelts,
Greeks,
Germans,
and
Slaves,
all
alike,
had
in
early
times
a
knowledge
of
letters,
consequently
the
early
inhabitants
of
Eire,
who were
the
first
colony
i.hat
had left
the cradle
of
the
family
in
Persia, had,
from
the
start,
a
knowledge
of
learning
and
of letters. The
Keltic
names
for
writing
"
sgrioB,"
Latin scribo
;
and
graf,
to
inscribe;
and
names
for
tablets,
tend
to show this
fully.
No
one
nation borrowed
in the
primaeval period
a
know-
ledge
of
learning
or of
rudimentary
letters from
another.
Hence
the
early
Irish did
not borrow from the
Phenicians,
nor
the
primaeval
Greeks
from
the
Phoenicians.
This truth can
be
illustrated
by
that
which,
at the
present day,
takes
place
throughout
most of the na-
tions
of
Europe.
England
has
a
literature of
her
own,
and a form
of
letters such
as
are
daily
seen
in
newspapers
and
printed
periodicals.
The
young
and
the
uneducated who have
not
been
trained
in
the school
of
historic
knowledge
call
those characters
Engl
:
sh
letters.
France has
a literature
of
her
own,
and makes
use of the same
letters. French-
men call
them
French
Idlers.
In like
manner,
the Ita-
lians
ar.cl
Sr--'-"'
"'
^'"
v
^ the
snme
r\r!.^
r\s
the French
THE KELTS
DID
NOT BORROW.
289
OT
English
to call
the letters
in which
their
published
periodicals
and
papers
are
printed,
Italian or
Spanish.
What
are
the
facts ?
Did
the
English
borrow
them
from
the French ?
did the French
borrow them from
the
Italian,
or vice
versa
? Xo
;
all
alike
have obtained
these
letters
from
the Eoman.
The Roman
mould
and
letter-
press
was,
as
it
were,
the
common matrix
for all
the
printing
type
of
Europe.
And
thus,
too,
it
happened
in
the
early
migrations
from,
the
Aryan
table-land
all
along
the
east
of the
Caspian
and the
boundary
line of the
River
Oxus. When
the
Keltic
colony
left and
they
did
not
all
leave in
one
body
they
brought
with
them
a know-
ledge
of the
arts, .sciences,
and of
literature,
as
known to
the
Aryans
at
the
time
;
when the
Oscan
and
Umbrian
races
left,
they
acted
in like manner
;
when
the
Pelasgi
migrated
westwards,
and
settled down in the
fertile
vales
of
Thessaly,
or entered
the
Peloponnesus,
they
were
not
inferior
in the
knowledge
of
their arts
and
of
literature
to
their
Aryan
relatives
whom
they
had
left
behind.
Hence
the Kelts cannot be
said
to
have
borrowed
from
the
Greeks
or from
the
Phoenicians
that
knowledge
of
letters
which,
according
to the
testimony
of
Irish
annals,
the
early
settlers
possessed.
The
story
of
Cadmus,
coming
with
his
sixteen
letters
from
Phoenicia,
and his brother
Fenius
Fearsa,
arriving
about
the
same
time in
Ireland,
does
not,
as
the
early
Greeks
knew
well,
indicate
the act
of an
individual,
but
of a
people
and of a
historic
event
connected
with that
people.
It
is
certain that the
early
Greeks
even
the
Pelasgi
had a
knowledge
of
letters,
and
far
a
better
knowledge,
too,
than the
Hellenes
had
at
a
subsequent
period.
The common
opinion
at
present
regarding
Cad-
mus
is,
that
there was
no
such individual
;
but
that
as
the
Greeks
had
had
a
knowledge
of
letters,
the
earlv
in-