. The earth and its inhabitants ... irbolgs, or men dressed in the skins of animals, asthe aboriginal inhabitants of the country. These beings of the night wereconquered by the gods of day, or Tuatha-de-damnns, who were the people ofDana, the mother of the These latter were acquainted with the metals,and they made arms, tools, and musical instruments. But the Tuatha-de-dananns were vanquished in turn by a third body of invaders, the warlike* Milesians of Spain, who came into the country eleven or fourteen centuriesbefore Christ, and overthrew the kingdom of Inis-Fail, the Island of Doom
. The earth and its inhabitants ... irbolgs, or men dressed in the skins of animals, asthe aboriginal inhabitants of the country. These beings of the night wereconquered by the gods of day, or Tuatha-de-damnns, who were the people ofDana, the mother of the These latter were acquainted with the metals,and they made arms, tools, and musical instruments. But the Tuatha-de-dananns were vanquished in turn by a third body of invaders, the warlike* Milesians of Spain, who came into the country eleven or fourteen centuriesbefore Christ, and overthrew the kingdom of Inis-Fail, the Island of descendants of these Milesians, it is pretended, can be recognised, even at thepresent day, by having an 0 or a Mac prefixed to their family names. It is onlynatural that a proud people like the Irish, in its day of humiliation, should * Hull, Physical Geology, &c. ; Owen, Palaeontology. t DArbois de Jubainville, Esquisse delà Mythologieirlandaise {Revue archéologique, June, 1878). ^^:hF^ -^si^^- / ::>^^^/ W; , 3- ./^. / , l,::\v^< -- ? \ TYPICAL IRISH. IRELAND. 897 take a delight in the past, and deify its heroes. The descendants of these ancientIrish still celebrate the glories of other days, and sing with enthusiasm the highdeeds of their warrior ancestors, as if a share of the distinction achieved belongedto themselves. Fin MacCurahal, the legendary king, whose name has beenchanged into Fingal by the Ossianic muse, is ever present to the mind of thechildren of Erin. To him they dedicate the most beauteous sites of their island,and everywhere they see the remains of his castles. Quite recently those Irishmenwho leagued together in order to free their country from English rule assumedthe name of Fenians, in memory of Fin, or Fion, who commanded the nationalmilitia seventeen centuries ago.* The similarity between Erse, or ancient Irish, and the Gaelic of the ScotchHighlands justifies us in the belief that at the dawn of history the inhabitants oflerne, Igbernia, o
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Keywords: ., bookcentury1800, bookdecade1880, booksubjectgeography, bookyear18
