prepared to afford his readers, without any critical
misgivings, "an account of the first inhabitants of Ireland after the
Flood." He now tells us with simple and dignified brevity that "the
kingdom of Ireland lay waste and uninhabited for the space of three
hundred years after the Deluge, till Partholanus, son of Seara, son of
Sru, son of Easru, son of Framant, son of Fathochda, son of Magog, son
of Japhet, son of Noah, arrived there with his people." From such a
patriarchal nomenclature the reader of Keating is suddenly introduced to
a story of domestic scandal, in which a "footman" and a "favourite
greyhound" make their frequent appearance. Then follow many great
epochs--the arrival of the Firbolgs, the dynasty of the Tuatha de
Danans, with revolutions and battles countless, before we come to the
commencement of a settled dynasty of kings, of whom more than ninety
reigned before the Christian era. It is, after all, more sad than
ridiculous to remember that within the present generation many
historians believed not only what Keating thus tells as truth, but also
what he ventured to doubt; and if the English antiquaries, according to
their wont, called for records,--did these not exist abundantly, if they
could be got at, in those authentic genealogies, which were from time to
time adjusted and collated with so much skill and scrupulous accuracy by
the official antiquaries who met in the Hall of Tara? The reader
unacquainted with such an out-of-the-way and rather weedy corner of
literature, may think this vague exaggeration; and I shall finish it by
quoting the latest printed, so far as I know, of the numerous solemn and
methodical statements about the manner in which the records of these
very distant matters were authenticated.

"When the said princes got the kingdom into their hands, they assigned
large territories to their antiquaries and their posterity to preserve
their pedigree, exploits, actions, &c.; and so very strict they were on
this point, that they established a triennial convention at Tara, where
the chief kings of Ireland dwelt, where all the antiquaries of the
nation met every third year to have their chronicles and antiquities
examined before the king of Ireland, the four provincial kings, the
king's antiquary-royal, &c.; the least forgery in the antiquary was
punished with death, and loss of estate to his posterity for ever--so
very exact they were in preserving their venerable monuments, and
leaving