great Scythian nation or tribe*. They occasionally assumed this denomination from Fenius, or Feniusa Farsa, a Scythian prince, the grandson of Magog, whom they represent as a most wise, virtuous, and particularly learned prince, that established seminaries for the instruction of youth in the Hebrew and other languages, and to whom they attribute the invention of letters†.

on the Red

Moses piss

ed it.

His son Niul, during his father's life, went into Niul settled Egypt, where he married a daughter of Pharao, who Sea when gave him a district on the borders of the Red Sea, and that Niul rendered the Israelites great services, by supplying them with provisions, when they were led through the Red Sea from Caperchiroth. Upon

* Such was the consequence of the Scythian establishment, that the period of time between the flood and the commencement of the Grecian history, was called the Scythian age. It continued down to the time of the Roman emperors to be considered a high honour to trace descent from them; as appears by the eulogy, which Justin made of them. He wrote under Antoninus Pius, and as a Roman, was little disposed to commend those, whom it was the arrogant fashion of that nation to deem barbarians. "The Scythians themselves always remained either free from the attacks of foreign powers, or unsubdued by them; they drove Darius the Persian monarch out of Scythia by an ignominious flight. They killed Cyrus and his whole army. They fought with like success against Zopyron, one of Alexander's generals, and destroyed him and all his forces. They had heard indeed of the arms of the Romans, but had never felt them."

Porphyry according to Eusebius makes Sanchoniatho writing his Phoenician history 800 years before the siege of Troy. (De Prep. Evang. L. x. c. 3.) So inaccurate was this heathen Greek in his chronology.

Niul's expressing his apprehension of the vengeance of his father-in-law, Moses offered him a settlement with his own people in the land, to which he was leading them. The offer was declined; but by the advice of Moses, the annalists tell us, that Niul seised some vessels then lying off the harbour, and moved lower down the Red Sea with the principal part of his family, until the fate of Pharao and his host became known. He then returned home, where he died respected both by the Egyptians and strangers. His grandson Sru was afterwards forced to flee from that territory by a descendant of Pharao, who threatened to revenge himself upon these settlers for their ancestors having favoured the escape of his enemies, and been accessary to the fatal destruction of the host of Egypt. They escaped his vengeance by flight, and returned

* Herodotus informs us, that the Phoenicians, who furnished Xerxes with 300 vessels, had a tradition, that their ancestors had formerly inhabited the coasts of the Red Sea, 1. vii. c 89.

+ Sir Lawrence Parsons in his Defence of the ancient History of Ireland, has thus accounted for the occasional denomination of Phæni, Pœni, or Phoenicians, applied by the Irish annalist to the Milesian colony. (p. 194.) "The Greeks say, that there was a king of that country who was called Phoenix, the Irish Phonius; the one, that from him the people were called Phoenicians, and the Carthagenians, Pœni; the other, that from him they were called Pheni. In fine, the Irish say, that they emigrated in the time of Phenius, which, according to the Irish history, was two generations before Moses; consequently, it was about the time of, or some time after their departure, that the country was called Phoenicia, according to every conjecture concerning the origin of that name. And therefore, in their ancient records, they call their country and themselves by their antient appellation, Scythia and Scythians. Pheni is an appellation more rarely used by them, as

to their native country, where they remained seven years. They then quitted it on account of dissentions; and after some adventures, they settled in an island called Guthia, where they resided near three centuries. They afterwards established a colony on the coast of Spain, and thence emigrated to Ireland.

the episode

perchiroth.

This episode, although preceding the date of the Reason of Milesian colony's arrival in Ireland, from which period about Caour researches commence, is pointed at for the purpose of establishing the fundamental credit of the ancient Irish history, and to refute the suggestions and assertions of the modern Pyrrhonites, that every thing related in their domestic annals concerning the Irish prior to the mission of St. Patrick*, ought to be banished to the region of fiction and romance. This account of the Irish phillids, bards, or chroniclers, falls in precisely with the early traditions of the

if, according to their own accounts, it had been a name but just imposed, as they were leaving the country, and to which they had not been habituated. And here it is observable, how this circumstance of their persevering in calling their ancestors by their ancient name of Scythiaus, and mentioning, that just at the time of their departure, that of Pheni was first given, coincides with their account of the great antiquity of their migration; and how the state of their arts and religion corresponds with this also. Whereas, if it was the fabricated tale of half-learned men of the fifth or sixth centuries, would they not have made the name of the country invariably Phoenicia? and of the people Phoenicians? Their accounts. may be inaccurate, but they have no appearance of being feigned." * Macp. ubi supra. The modern disciples have improved upon their masters in Pyrrhonism. This is an evident admission by Macpherson, both of the existence and mission of St. Patrick, of which notice will be taken hereafter in examining Dr. Ledwich's denial of both.

Pihachi

roth and

Jews. We read in one of their most respectable Rabbies, Simeon, who wrote 200 years before the christian æra, that "because these Canaan ships gave Israel of their provisions, God would not destroy their ships, but with an east wind carried them far down the Red Sea." The concordance of the Irish account, with that of the inspired writer of Genesis, cannot be set up as evidence of the fiction of the former upon any other ground, than that of plagiarism; and even that charge brought home to them, would, to the extent of the charge, clear their annals of falsity, though it would deprive them of the claim of original and genuine records, which the Irish insist

upon.

By the researches of the truly learned and unbiassed Caperchi Vallancey it appears, that the Pihachiroth of scripture, from before which place the Israelites passed the Red

roth.

At this period of early population, emigrant colonies or settlers in new or strange nations were usually called, as they were known by their language. These settlers on the Red Sea under Niul, the son of Pheneus, came from what then was called Chanaan, and spoke the language there used; which afterwards, when a part of that country took the name of Phoenicia, from Phoenius, or Feniusa Farsa, the Scythian Solon, the language came to be called the Phoenician, more especially after the Israelites had divided the land of promise amongst themselves, and introduced with them their own native Hebrew tongue, of which the Cannanean was one of the diversified dialects, or family changes of tongue, as before observed. La langue de Chanaan: c'est à dire, la langue Channanéenne ou des Chananéens, cst celle que nous nommons plus ordinairement la langue Phænicienne. Dict de Trevoux, verbo Chanaan.

Sea, is precisely the same place, to which the Irish bards have given another appellation, namely, Caperchiroth. The original name of the place, whence Moses led the Israelites through the Red Sea, was Chiroth, and by the addition of piha or pi, which means mouth in the Hebrew and other oriental languages, according to St. Jerome and Eusebius, the word Pihachiroth means the mouth or port of Chiroth; whereas, in the Phoenician, Chaldee, and other oriental languages, caper is a town, village, or settlement, and Caperchiroth will then mean the town of Chirotht, which infers no other difference, than if a modern writer, meaning the same place, should refer sometimes to the port, and at others to the town of Dover. Now, had this account been fabricated after the introduction of christianity amongst the Irish by the monks and other such dreamers, the fair deduction would be, in the first place, that these early christians would, in case they had copied from scripture, have given the exact scriptural name, or otherwise they ex

*Turn and encamp before Pihachiroth, between Migdol and the sea, Fxod. xiv. 2. And they departed before Pihachiroth, and passed through the midst of the sea, Numb. xxxiii. 8.

+ Chiroth, I am informed by persons conversant in the Hebrew language, means an open space; well, therefore, does it describe the place, in which 600,000 men, besides women and children, and proportionate flocks and herds of cattle, could encamp. The learned authors of the Trevoux have observed a very close analogy between the Hebrew and Phoenician tongue: comme nous le voyons par tous les noms qui sont dans l'ecriture, & par les mots Puniques que St. Augustin & les autres anciens nous ont conservés. Ubi supra Gord. p. 18.