_, fire; _ites_, the ides of a month; _hister_, a stage-player;
_subulo_, a trumpeter; _italos_, a bull; _arimoi_, monkeys, _antar_, an
eagle; _arakos_, a lark; _gnis_, a crane; _capys_, a falcon; _gapos_, a
chariot; _burros_, a bowl; _atarin_, a wine-cruet; _nanos_, a wanderer;
_mantissa_, an increase or addition; _turseis_, a space enclosed with
walls; and several others, not one of which bears the remotest resemblance
to any Irish or Celtic word of equivalent meaning.

Further learning, also, would have taught him the hopelessness of
reconciling the Etruscan with any of the languages of Europe known as
spoken languages immediately before the Christian era--Dionysius of
Halicarnassus having expressly declared, that neither in language nor in
customs were the Etruscans of his time similar to any other known nation;
and Dionysius was well acquainted with both Celts and Phoenicians.

Besides, the Phoenician equivalents for most of the Etruscan words in
the list we have just enumerated, are known, and ought to have been known
to any writer undertaking an investigation of either language; and if
known to Sir William Betham, ought at once to have deterred him from this
preposterous attempt. Thus the Phoenician equivalent of aesar is _aloni_
or _alonim_; of kypra, _astarte_; of nyrtia, _god_; of mantus, _much_; of
faland, _samen_; of andras, _carbon_; of lucumo _malaho_; of damnos,
_rackabe_, &c. &c., in none of which, except _samen_, does there appear
the least similarity, either with the Etruscan or the Irish words of like
signification. So also in respect of a number of Gaulish words, the
meanings of which have come down to us, and of which no one pretending
competency to such enquiries ought to be ignorant, but of the existence of
which this vice-president of a leading literary society of Ireland seems
utterly unconscious. But fools will rush in where angels fear to tread,
and Ignoramus walks with confidence where Eruditus fears to take a step.
Reader, do not think that Christopher is too severe! For what but
condemnation and contempt can any rational mind conceive, for a writer so
incapable of dealing with even the rudiments of his subject, and yet so
presumptuous in the temerity of his ignorance, as to declare that "till
_now_ not a scintilla of light has appeared on the subject of Etruscan
antiquities?" We can pardon learned trifling, but when a man wholly
unlearned, on a subject of the greatest interest to the learned