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the maritime towns; for it continues, at this time, to be the national language all over the kingdom.

THIS fame Magogian was also the national speech of all Scotland, but it began to be gradually confined to the Highlands, in proportion as their intercourfe with the English increased; infomuch, that it is a doubt with me whether any veftiges of it are to be found in the Lowlands of that kingdom, at this time: but it is certain, that all the Highlanders that have settled in Ireland, from time to time, in later days, and they are many, as well as of other Scotch families, may be truely faid to have come back to their own brethren, from whence they originally went; converfing with them in the language common to both, and agreeing in their manners and customs very closely; I mean the original Irish, or, in other words, such as are not the descendants of English or French families.

THE ever-famous Dr. Wallis, in the preface to his Grammatica Lingua Anglicane, page 22, fpeaking of the production of the English language, from feveral changes of Anglo-Saxon, and its extenfion into Scotland, by the expulfion of great numbers of nobility, as wellas common people, into that country, has these remarkable words: "Nam Scoti Montani, (Highlanders dicti) hos (qui vocantur Lowlanders, non minus quam Anglos, Saffons, hoc eft Saxones) appellant: fe vero Gael et "Gaiothel dixerunt olim. At Montani illi Scoti, et infu“lani variarum adjacentium infularum incolæ, qui mag

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nam quidem, fed incultiorem Scotia partem occupant, "ad feptentrionalem et occidentalem Scotiæ partem pofiti "antiquam linguam Britanicam, feu potius Hibernicam

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magna ex parte, etiamnum retinent: funt enim Pictorum, hoc eft antiquiflimorum Britonum, jugum Romanum, dedignantium, in montofas hafce et afperrimas regiones, pulforum) reliquiæ, admiftæ Scotis (a Scythis for"fan, aut Gothis, olim oriundis) ex Hibernia huc advec"tis; nam et Hibernia incolæ olim dicebantur Scoti." "For the Highlanders call the Lowlanders Saffons, "Saxons, as they do the English; but they formerly "called themselves Gael, and Gaiothel. But thefe Scotch

i. e.

Highlanders, and the inhabitants of the neighbouring iflands, who occupy a very large, but the more unculti"vated part of Scotland, to the north or weft, speak the "ancient British, or rather Irish language chiefly: for they

are the remains of the Picts, that is, of the most ancient Britons, who, fcorning to submit to the Roman yoke, "were forced into thefe mountainous regions, and mixed "with the Scots, who came there from Ireland, perhaps "the offspring of Scythians or Goths; for the Irish inha"bitants were formerly called Scoti." In this paffage it is worth obferving, that the Highlanders call both the Lowlanders and English by the fame name, Saffons; the Welsh do the fame, by calling them Sais, and a Welshman Cymro; and in Ireland, the native Irish diftinguish themselves from the English, and other foreigners fettled among them, by the name Goidhealagh, an Irishman or Gadelian, from the Gadelas, defcended from Magog, as we have fhewn it before; juft as the Highland Scots do; and the English families, though fettled in Ireland for many generations paft, are there called Sacfonac, as well as those who are born in England. Thus we fee, that

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the remains of these original people, the Gomerians in Wales, and the Magogians in Ireland and Scotland, keep up the diftinction between themselves and the other mixed inhabitants of thofe three places; and mark their origin, by the names they bear, to this day.

I SHALL now finish this chapter, with the genealogy of Gadelas, which I promised, a little above; to fhew whence he sprung, and that he was the ancestor of king Milefius of Spain. The famous and learned Cormac Mac Cuillenain, archbishop of Cafbel, in the Pfalter of Cafbel, and from the Book of Invafions, afferts that Gadelas was cotemporary with Mofes; and that the Milefians invaded Ireland two hundred and eighty-three years after Pharaoh and his host perished in the Red Sea, as I have mentioned it before; and, therefore, it is impoffible that Heber and Heremon should be the fons of Gadelas; but of Milefius, who is the last descendant in the catalogue of that line, which is as follows:

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FROM this table it appears, that Milefius was the eighteenth in descent from Gadelas; and it must be observed, that the taste for keeping the most exact registers of their great men prevailed fo much, by the legal injunction upon their bards and antiquaries, and by fashion, that there were very few families of any note, but caufed their own pedigrees to be handed down, with the greatest care; and it is now the humour of many, whofe fituation in life is but very low; for it is not uncommon to hear men, following the plough, in that country, giving an account of their own descent from very great ancestors; which they deliver with fo much precifion, and as little hesitation, as any one could do in reading a catalogue of names fairly wrote; and this is learned by every fon from his father, in fucceffion; juft as the younger bards were taught, in former ages, by the elder; many of which pedigrees, thus preserved traditionally by poor families, agree very clofely with the authentic records now in being; although no poffible information could be obtained by these people from the records themselves, as they cannot read their own language; nor can they, from their obscurity in life,. procure any knowledge of this kind from thofe that are well versed in the Irish writing; and this is much the genius of the ancient Britons, at this time, and ever was; which is a strong prefumption, that, from the very deluge, the fons of Noah respectively pursued this cuftom.

I

CHAP..

C H A P. VII.

Colonel Grant's explanation of a curious Siberian medal, in the cabinet of the empress of Ruffia, which relates to the religion of Tangutia and Tibet; of the Lamas, and their notion of a TRIUNE BEING; agreement between Perfian and German words; miffionaries accounts of thofe people; hiftory of the knowledge of a pleurality in the DEITY, among the patriarchs, and afterwards among the Jews, &c.

HEN the mind is attentively employed in fuch refearches as tend to illuftrate any obscure

paffages in history or antiquity, every hint, every ray of light that illustrates the subject, gives high fatisfaction to the ftudent, and tends to the great entertainment of the reader of his work.

I HAD much pleasure, in the discovery of an anecdote that fell in my way, from the pen of a very learned and ingenious gentleman; who, with a fagacity peculiar to himself, and a knowledge in the ancient Magogian language, which, I am forry, very few can boaft of, has illuminated the fubject I am upon to my utmoft wishes.

MEDALIC history has rescued many noble paffages from the dark receffes of oblivion, in almost every nation in Europe; and it was a glorious paffion that animated the bufy minds of men, of every rank, to imprefs their atchievements, and other memorable incidents, upon fome durable material, which was capable of bearing the in

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