Chronicles of Eri; being the History of the Gaal Sciot Iber, or Irish people; translated from the MSS. in the Phœnician dialect of the Scythian language. By O'Connor

Front matter

© 'roTfrroæ Cieir-kicik head ©if his isace, SOUMIS ' PAS YAIHCUS £mde* &vO*£ fir Sis JticAar-d fAUlifij. & Cr CHRONICLES OF ERI; BEING THE HISTORY OF THE GAAL SCIOT IBER: OR, THE IRISH PEOPLE ; TRANSLATED FROM THE ORIGINAL MANUSCRIPTS IN THE PHŒNICIAN DIALECT OF THE SCYTHIAN LANGUAGE. By O'CONNOR. The Ring of Baal. VOL. I. LONDON: PRINTED FOR SIR RICHARD PHILLIPS AND CO. 1822. Tl) SIR FRANCIS BURDETT, OF FOREMARK, BARONET. My Friend, When in accordance with my desire that you should have the evidence of your own senses, wherefrom to form your own judgment of the length, depth, and complexion of the last conspiracy against my life and honour, by agents of an oligarchy, whose every act is working a mighty revolution in all the countries subject, and subjected to their fell dominion, you came to Ireland ; at which time you consulted me as to the best account of my ill-fated country ; I requested of you to content yourself for the present with reading the book that lay open before you, the dimensions thereof wide as the land, whereon you would see marks of the iron-hand of despotism ; the time of pressure to be calculated from the woeful havoc it had made ; and I promised that I would, as soon as could be, present you with a true and faithful history of my country, from the earliest times, which would clearly explain those causes that had produced, the effects you sym pathetically deplored.

I now come, late as to time, but, as you know, quickly, when the manifold afflictions and consequent ill-health under a which s laboured, are taken into account, to fulfil the promise I then made ; not to lay at your feet, but to place in your hands, the most ancient Chronicles of the people whose descendants you saw, and whose melancholy condition brought many a tear from your manly, pitying eye. In selecting you as executor of this legacy which I be queath lo those that now be, and to those who are yet to come, for an everlasting possession, it is necessary that I tell posterity the reason that hath actuated me to commit to you this trust, which is not to be found in the exemplary manner in which you have carried yourself in all the relations of private life ; nor because of your acquirements in the walks of literature ; nor in the many proofs I have had of your friendship through a series of nearly thirty years ; nor yet for the extension of your full and fostering hand towards my children, whom you have made partakers of a portion of your wealth, since persecution, in varied shapes, and the success of diabolical machinations of a perfidious traitor, taking advantage of the situation in which I had been placed by that persecution, had deprived their father of the means.

Had it not been for you, my gallant boy, into whose hands you gave his first sword, with instructions how to use the destroying weapon in support of the rights of man, against tyranny and oppression, tempering justice with mercy ; into whose ear you poured lessons of wisdom, precepts of humanity ; — had it not been for you, the career of glory, wherein his actions have shed additional lustre even on our names, had been cut short, and he had been deprived of his fair proportion of the renown of these brave warriors who have established the independence of the republic of Colum bia, all of whom are loud in his praise. Even these powerful V causes united, would not be of sufficient weight to induce me to constitute you the trustee of such a charge : these things appertain to private life, and I feel pride in pro claiming to the world my thanks therefor.

Preface

. THIS is the fourth effort which I have made, to present to the world a faithful history of my country. Whilst I was immured in a prison in Dublin, during parts of the years 1798 and 1799, charged by the oligarchy of England with the foul crime of treason, because I would not disgrace my name by the acceptance of an earldom and a pension, to be paid by the people whom I was courted to' desert, and because I resisted their every art to induce me to become a traitor to my beloved Eri, I employed my time in writing a history of that ill-fated land, which I had brought down to a very late period, when an armed force of Buckinghamshire militia men entered my prison, and all the result of my labours, with such ancient manuscripts as I had then by me, were outrageously taken away, and have never since been recovered.

Having been removed from Dublin in March 1799, and taken off to Fort George in Scotland, in the very teeth of the provisions of the Habeas Corpus Act, because I would not become a party to a compromise, whereby I should have destroyed my own fame, and justified the multitudinous acts of tyranny exercised towards me ; in that military fortress 1 was occupied, when health permitted, in again writing the history of my native land, which I had brought down to preface. the last moment that I remained in that part of Scotland, where I was detained until the commencement of 1801, and from whence I was brought away a prisoner. A part of my family and myself reached Forres, the first night after our departure, and the ladies having left their muffs in the room of the Inn in which we sat, they found on the succeeding morning that the messenger had ripped the linings, under the suspicion, no doubt, of communications from my fellow prisoners to their friends, whom I had left behind, being there secreted, in ignorance that I had given an assurance to governor Stewart, that neither I, nor any of my family, would be the bearers of any papers from them.

This occurrence, added to the circumstance of my manuscripts having been accidentally left behind at Meldrum, for which I had to send back a few miles, made my family apprehensive that if the messenger should lay his hands upon them, my captivity would be prolonged ; and having passed a day of festivity at Aberdeen, with the officers and wives of a regiment of native Scots, who had been quartered at Fort George, during a part of the time of my abode there, and from whom my family and myself had experienced something more warm than mere attention ; the scene brought back to our recollection days of former times, and the partner of my secret thoughts being entitled to command any sacrifice that she would ask, having requested of me to suffer her to commit my writings to the flames, I could not do otherwise than yield ; Thus perished the fruits of my labour in Fort George.

Having regained my liberty shortly after my arrival in London, so far as going abroad, I did not resume my favourite object during my abode in England, which was till 1803, when I returned to my own country, and having availed my self of the earliest opportunity of reclaiming from the bowels

PREFACE.

. IX of the earth the most ancient manuscripts of the History of Eri, I recommenced my pursuit upon a more enlarged scale, and had completed the work down to the memorable era of 1315, since Christ, (when the five kings of Eri, laying aside their jealousies, invited Edward Bruce, a prince of their own race, to accept of the sovereignty of the land,) when it, and almost all my most valuable effects, to a great amount, perished in the flames which consumed all but the bare walls of the castle of Dangan, in the year 1809. Were I a fatalist, assuredly I would have thought that it had been decreed, that an authentic history of Jnisfail, the Isle of Destiny, was never to see the light. Having, for some time afterwards, been kept fully occupied by agents of the oligarchy of England, in defending my property and life ; — liberty we wild Irish have none to lose, — I, for a while, abandoned my project, and until the arrival of Sir Francis Burdett in Ireland in 1817, meant to defer its execution ; when I promised to present to him, at as early a day as possible, an history of Ireland on the truth of which he could rely : which promise I now fulfil.

This history is a literal translation into the English tongue, (from the Phœnican dialect of the Scythian language,) of the ancient manuscripts which have, fortunately for the world, been preserved through so many ages, chances and vicissitudes. Should any captious person be inclined to entertain sus picion of the antiquity of these manuscripts, I beg leave to observe, that I do not presume to affirm that the very skins, whether of sheep or of goats, are of a date so old as the events recorded ; but this I will assert, that they must be faithful transcripts from the most ancient records ; it not being within the range of possibility, either from their style, language, or contents, that they could have been forged.

PREFACE.

. X So fully sensible was a man of Ireland, who far surpassed all his contemporaries, and in truth, most men, I allude to Henry Flood, that if encouragement were given to bring to light and investigate ancient records of Ireland, still existing, they would be the means of diffusing great knowledge of the antique world ; and which, with the memorials of the east that even still remain, would illuminate all the intermediate spaces of the earth ; so convinced was he, I say, of this fact, by means of the deep researches which his penetrating mind had made, that he bequeathed the whole of his large possessions for the purpose of instituting professorships in the University of Dublin, for the perpetuation of the Irish language, and the purchase of manuscripts therein. In this magnificent design, his views were unfortunately frustrated by the contemptible policy of the incubus that hath long over-lain unhappy Eri ; for, a claimant was set up to the estates of the philosophic donor, to whom they were accordingly decreed !

Had his bequest been suffered to take effect, there is no doubt but that very many manuscripts, of great antiquity and value, which now are mouldering in a neglected state, would have been brought forth. It is not possible, nor would it be proper if it were, to anticipate exceptions which peradventure, may be taken to the chronicles of Eri. If such, however, should be made, and of value sufficient, the objectors may rely upon it, that satisfactory answers shall be given to all doubts and suspi cions, which hitherto have invariably been found to be pro portionate with the ignorance which at this moment pervades the people of England, with regard to the history, ancient and modern, of this celebrated land, — once the seat of learning, and equal and just laws, now of demoralization and injustice.

PREFACE.

. XI It remains that I now acquaint the world, that 1 shall in stantly resume my work for the purpose of continuing die history of Eri, the next volume of which, to be brought down to the year of the Christian era, 1169 ; 1 hope to com p.ete so as to be ready for publication in the month of March next ; and if I live, I will prepare the Chronicles of Ireland to the day of my birth in another volume ; and then I will give the history of my own times in one other, the con cluding volume of the whole ; which five volumes will be a complete continued history of this noble island, under the names of Eri, to the year 1 1 69, and of Ireland from that epoch, from the most remote time to the instant on which I shall drop my pen. O'CONNOR. Paris, 1821. CONTENTS.

Part I

Gives the traditionary account of the origin of the Scythians — the emigration of a tribe of that race from their original land to the southward of the river Oxus — their passage of the Tigris and Euphrates — their dominion of western Asia — the invasion of their land by the Assyrians — the building of Babel by the Assyrians — the flight of Ardfear or Noah, the supreme chief of the Scythians to Ardmenia — his death and burial— the reign of Japheth in Ardmenia — the election of Og, son of Japheth — the emigration of a colony from Ardmenia to Thrace, &c. — the conquest of Iberia by Og — the emigration of a colony from Ardmenia to the north of Caucasus — and to Numidia in Africa — and from thence to Spain ; from which time it gives the authentic history of the emigration of a tribe from Iberia to Spain — of the introduction of the Phœnician letters into Galicia, in Spain, by Eolus — of the institution of the order of Olam teachers, or wise men — of the emigration of a tribe from Gallicia to Aquitania — of the regulation of the priesthood — of the discovery of Britain by the Phœnicians — of the separation of the isles of Scilly from the main land — of the invasion of Spain by Sesostris of Egypt, the battle of Samur, and the fall of Eocaid Golam — of the departure of the Prince Ith from Galicia to explore an island westward of Britain— of his death — and the return of his son with the survivors — Lugad's relation of the adventure — of the emigration of the king, princes, nobles, Olam, and a colony from Breoccean, in Galicia, to the western island.

Part II

, Gives an account of the arrival of this colony on the western Isle — their conquest of the island, which they call Eri — their covenant with the preceding rulers, by which they retained the sovereignty of the country now called Connaught — the establishment of the aborigines on the borders of Loc Erne — the division by lot of the remainder of the island amongst the two sons, and one grandson of Eocard Golam — the present Munster, Leinster, and Ulster — the contention of the kings of Deas and Gaelen, the battle of Cesiol, fall of the king of Deas, and the usurpation of the title of Erimionn by the king of Gaelen — the arrival of a company of Phœnicians — the attempt to introduce image worship into Eri — its failure — the death of Er, king of the CONTENTS. north, and the imposition of the name of Ullad on his kingdom — the building of Dun Sobairce and Dunciermna the first stone edefice ot this tribe in Eri, or elsewhere — the invasion of Gaelen by the Danan and Firgneat — unsuccessful — the name of Deas changed to that of Mumain

Part III

The legislation of Eocaid Olam Fodla, whereby Eri became a confederation of the three kingdoms of Numain, Ullad, and Gaelen ; the king of Ullad being chosen ardri, or chief king — the building of Teacmor, on Tobrad, where the national assembly of Eri, consisting of all the kings, princes, and nobles, deputies from the olam, and heads of the people, and the chief and eight of the nobles of the Danan, met every fourth year to legislate, and transact the affairs of the nations — the tale of Leafail— -the laws of Eri promulgated — the death of Eocaid Olam Fodla, the wise legislator of Eri — contention between the princes of Ullad for the first time, whereby the office of ardri, which had been continued in the person of the kings of Ullad for about 130 years, was vested in another.

Part IV

The king of Gaelen chosen ardri — a noble of the Brigantes, in Britain, comes on an embasy to Ullad^mines are worked on the southern extremity of Eri.

Part V

The building of Aodmagnmaca — Maca, a woman, reigns ! ! ! — a king of Gaelen re-assumes the title of Erimionn — a tribe of Peucini, from Scandinavia, arrive in Eri— depart — return — procure women by cotenant, that the sons of daughters, not of sons, shall succeed to the throne of Caledonia — Maon, a young prince of Gaelen, flies to Caledonia — returns — kills the murderer of his father in battle — the tale of Maon and Moriat — Maon introduces foreign troops, who are violent and overbearing — a conspiracy against him and them — both he and they slain — Gaelen called Laigean, from the long spears borne by these foreigners — Imbior Slaigne now had its name of Loc Garman from them also — the affecting relation of Aongus and Aine — the title of Chief King changed from Erimionn to Ardri — the permission of Ruidruide-mor to Aongus for his son by his daughter to a portion in Ullad — 'the institution of the Clauda Ruid-ruide in Ullad.

Errata. — In the head-lines of all the pages from the conclusion of the Sixth Chapter, to the end of Part the First, Jar The Writing or Eolus, read Chronic Lts or GiELAt. CONTENTS OF THE DEMONSTRATION. Part I. A Demonstration of the Original Seat, Nations, and Tribes of the Scythian race - II. From the earliest Accounts of the Existence of this Earth, to the sounding of Ba-bel ... iv III. From the dismemberment of the ancient Scythian Empire, and the building of Ba-bel by the Assyrians, in 9246, to the expulsion of the shepherd chiefs from Egypt, and their arrival in Pelasgia and Ceropeia, about 1100 before Christ .... xv IV. Of all the Scythian inbes that emigrated to the Isles of the Gentiles, south of the Ister, from the Euxine, East, to the Rhœtian Alps, and Fanonia West to the extremity of Greece South, from the year 2170, to the birth of Christ. ... xxi V. Of the Scythian tribes that colonized the districts of Europe, from the western extremity of Italy, and the Rhœtian Alps, to the German Ocean, between the rivers Danube, and Rhine, north and the Garronne south .-...-- Ii VI.

Of the Goths bii VII. Of the Scythian Sidonians in Spain - - - xcii VIII. Of the Ib-er-ian Scythians in Spain - - - xciv IX. Of the Scythian Tribes in the Isle of Britain - - xcviii X. Of all the Nations of Europe, antecedently to the invasions of the Scythians .... ci XI. Of the Manners, Customs, Original Institutions, and Religion, of the Scythian race - - - cviii XII. Of the Language of the Scythian Race - - cxliii Conclusion ..--..--- cccxlix Directions for placing the Engravings. VOL. I. Portrait - - - Frontispiece Map of Western Asia to face page cxlix of Demonstration of Greece clxviii of Ditto of Spain ! — ccxliii of Ditto of Britain cclxvi of Ditto VOL. II. Interior of tlie High Chamber - Frontispiece Map of Eri to face page 1 Roll of the Laws — — Oft A Demonstration of the Original Seat, Nations, and Tribes qf the Scythian race.

PAKT I. A HE Chronicles of Er-i, about to be presented to you, relate to events so very remote, I have thought fit not to confide the illustration of passages rendered obscure by time, to an notations solely, but to lay before you such previous informa tion, as may enable you to see your way yet more distinctly, and as experience teacheth, that the surest method of explain ing truth, detecting and exposing error, saving time by the avoidance of repetitions, and preventing confusion, is to com mence with the origin of a subject, it is my intention to go as far back as the first syllable of recorded time, detaining you at the source, and through the different stages in our descent, no longer than will suffice for the forming your judgment with precision. The main scope of my design is to elucidate the history of that branch of the great Scythian family, at this day languish ing on the emaciated bosom of unhappy Er-i, which is so blended with the history of a considerable portion of Asia, and a great part of Europe, that it will be indispensable to point out their original seat, from whence to trace not. only them, but all those tribes in any way connected with them, and this I purpose to do from the evidence of the writings of the Scythian tribe of the Hebrews intelligibly expounded.

Of Eolus, one of ancient days, of whom you have not heretofore heard, and on the authority of the concurrent testimony of antiquity, by means of similarity of manners and customs, in stitutions, laws, religion, and above all, by perfect identity of language, and this so clearly as to admit of no doubt, or farther question ; and as Geography is the finger, Chronology the eye, Etymology the tongue of antiquity, I will annex a DEMONSTRATION. II charts of the countries, tables of times, and a glossary of words, to facilitate our progress in the long, and I expect instructive voyage to which I invite you, companion of my way. But whilst I am indulging the hope that you are marching with me, your faculties directed to the attainment of objects of this earth, within the scope of the reason of man ; should your mind be winging its way on pinions of miracle and mystery, in the regions of air, the illimitable domain of fancy, and her elfish train, wedded to dogmas to which it became attached, you know not how, nor when, mere effect of casualty of place of birth, from which in consequence of obstinacy, or indiffer ence you will not endeavour to divorce your understanding, be not offended with me when I say, though you may have made, or be capable of making the greatest progress in the beaten track of literature, the Goal of wisdom you can never reach.

Think me not unreasonable then, if I request, in return for the pains I have taken for your edification, that you will do your utmost to disencumber your intellect from any prejudices it may have imbibed : to proceed in this interesting investiga tion with full confidence in the extent of your own powers ; not to decide hastily against the proofs about to be submitted to you, because dates, and facts, or, to speak more correctly, the style of narrating them, should differ from those on the authority of which, you may hitherto perhaps have been in the habit of relying, nor yet to imagine that relations are authentic, because of their antiquity ; doth not the knowledge of the days as they pass, lay open the grossest errors of times gone by? As it is my intention to study brevity, as far as may be con sistent with perfect clearness, it cannot be expected that this demonstration should be extended to notices of ancient writers at variance with each other, and not unfrequently with them selves, and to comparisons, and refutations of the many schemes of modern system builders, each contending for the support of antiquity, according to the plan he may happen to have pre conceived, drawing conclusions from probabilities, and plausi- DEMONSTRATION.

III ble conjectures, pressing into his service every scrip of authority favorable to his cherished hypothesis, discarding every expression of the same authority militating against it, attempting to deduce effects from causes which never existed, and to qualify ignorance by the abuse of what an ignorant doth not understand ; now building on a name as on a rock, then shunning it as a quicksand ; at one time eulogizing, at another time vilifying the self same individual, and when driven to the last extremity, reference to common sense exhausted, recourse is had to divine inspiration, and infallibility of sacred penmen, whose words to be taken now literally, then figuratively, generally bearing diverse meanings requiring explanation, are to be considered most entitled to respect, when most irreconcileable to right reason, and least understood; practices disingenuous and unworthy.

For myself I neither have, nor would I condescend to have any scheme, system, or theory to serve a purpose, my sole object being to deliver what I conceive on the most diligent investigation, in my well weighed judgment to be the truth. What glory can my country derive from an origin deduced through thousands of ages, of what avail is it in any point of view, whether our ancestors were Scythians, expelled by the Assyrians from the land of Shinar, fled to Ardmenia, settled in Ib-er-ia, emigrated to Spain, and from thence were driven by Sesostris to Er-i. Or Aborigines of the continent of Europe, or of the Isle of Bri-tain, were chased from thence by the Celtæ or Belgæ to Er-i. Why may not this latter tale, for the propagation and establishment of which, the hired scribes of England have, from motives of policy, labored these three hundred years, as pro aris et focis, be suffered to stand over our mighty fall ?

Why ? because im mortal truth avouches the reverse, as you will find by a care ful perusal of the following pages, whereby you will be enabled to distinguish Asiatic from European, — the adoration of Bdal, from Druidism, and the idolatry of Mannus, — the Scythian lettered language from the Ger-mannic speech, — and the Celtic tongue, by a chain of proofs, which though they may fail to impress ethereal fancy, must convince the reason of all who delight in wisdom and respect truth. DEMONSTRATION. From the earliest Accounts of the Existence of this Earth, to the founding of Ba-bel.

PART II.

ilOWEVER well founded the pretensions of the Tatars, Chinese, Hindoos, Troglodites, Egyptians, Ethiopians, Arabs, or Assyrians, may be to celebrity in ages the most remote, I shall not enquire ; this demonstration concerns the Scythians, other people no farther than relates to them. Your mind will readily entertain the suggestion, that a great length of time must have passed, before a people acquire the science of forming figures whereby to delineate ideas. When ever these means of transferring the recollection of past occur rences, from the fallaciousness of memory, to the more certain record of letters have been invented, then are the most memorable transactions compiled, then is rudely formed the history of that people, the most early portion commencing at some imaginary point of time, the whole filled with marvels, which being from time to time passed through the filtre of the senses, rendered by experience more and more capable of separating truth from falsehood, matter too gross and palpable is every now and then rejected, whilst the memorial of some few inci dents of the most remote date is preserved, and pertinaciously adhered to, till at length reluctantly surrendered to reason, and not unfrequently to the more authentic relations of some other people, who had acquired the knowledge of letters, at an earlier period, and whose history was in some wise connected with theirs.

The facts are universally admitted, that the Phœnicians were the first people (whose history is connected with that of Europe,) who became acquainted with the art of writing, and had not attained the knowledge of printing ; that the Phœni cian records (manuscript of course) were destroyed by the DEMONSTRATION. V Romans, or shared the deplorable fate of the memorials of the east as far as our limits, in the flames of Alexandria, from which circumstances it hath happened, thai no work more ancient than the writing ascribed to Moses, hath escaped to our days ; as it contains an account of the world from the beginning according to the notions of the Hebrews, I beg leave to lay briefly and succinctly before you, so much thereof as is applicable to our present subject, from the commencement, to the period of time, whereto this section is brought down.

Moses was one of the children of Israel, the man who conspiring with his afflicted brethren, formed a grand confederacy of his nation, which by uniting their force, enabled them to shake off the galling yoke of servitude. He is said to have died about one thousand four hundred and fifty-one years before the birth of Christ, by the computation of the Hebrews, according to which he was not in existence for two thousand four hundred and thirty-three years from the commencement of his history, nor did he write till seven hundred and twenty years had elapsed from the time of the founding of Babel; the work was therefore compiled from the traditions above mentioned, and hath had the peculiar fortune of not having hitherto yielded up its manifold absurdities to reason, on the contrary, they seem to have gained strength and consistency, principally from being, if I may so say, opposed thereto, as they are translated, attempted to be expounded, and received.

For this great man though I have ever entertertained the highest respect, I must consider his supposed writings as those of any other individual recording traditions, orally delivered through a course of hundreds of ages, the conservators labouring under the complicated disadvantages of revolutions, emigrations, slavery, and wanderings. On the authority of such traditions, the youth of the portion of the world called Christiandome are instructed to believe That this earth being ushered into light, by a being the prototype of man, on a scale of dimensions infinite, attributes incomprehensible, he created one pair of the human kind VI DEMONSTRATION. from the elements of a land called Eden, situated between the Tigris and Euphrates. That when 1656 years had elapsed, the Creator did forewarn an individual of the name of Noah, the son of Lamech, who dwelt on Shinar by Euphrates, to prepare a vessel for the purpose of escaping from a mighty flood, with which he was about to deluge the whole earth, by which means Noah, his wife, his three sons and their wives, did escape to the mountain of Arrarat in Ardmenia.