the remains of these original people, the Gomerians in Wales, and the Magogians in Ireland and Scotland, keep 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. up 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 Cashel, in the Pfalter of Cafhel, and from the Book of Invasions, afferts that Gadelas was cotemporary with Moses; and that the Milefians invaded Ireland two hundred and eighty-three years after Pharaoh and his hoft 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: 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 so much, by the legal injunction upon their bards and antiquaries, and by fashion, that there were very few families of any note, but caused their own pedigrees to be handed down, with the greatest care; and it is now the humour of many, whose 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 so 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 closely 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 those 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 custom. I CHAP. CHA 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 those people; hiftory of the knowledge of a pleurality in the DEITY, among the patriarchs, and afterwards among the Jews, &c. ཡིཆོག མ HEN the mind is attentively employed in fuch wrefearches 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 subject I am upon to my utmost 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 |