cknowledge that it is possible to bring the genealogies of the
Gaedhils to their origin, to Noah and to Adam; and if he does not
believe that, may he not believe that he himself is the son of his
own father. For there is no error in the genealogical history, but
as it was left from father to son in succession, one after another.

"Surely every one believes the Divine Scriptures, which give a
similar genealogy to the men of the world, from Adam down to
Noah;[22] and the genealogy of Christ and of the holy fathers, as
may be seen in the Church [writings]. Let him believe this, or let
him deny God. And if he does believe this, why should he not
believe another history, of which there has been truthful
preservation, like the history of Erinn? I say truthful
preservation, for it is not only that they [the preservers of it]
were very numerous, as we said, preserving the same, but there was
an order and a law with them and upon them, out of which they could
not, without great injury, tell lies or falsehoods, as may be seen
in the Books of _Fenechas_ [Law], of _Fodhla_ [Erinn], and in the
degrees of the poets themselves, their order, and their laws."[23]

[Illustration: BEREHAVEN]

FOOTNOTES:

[15] _Erinn_.--O'Curry, page 57. It has also been remarked, that there
is no nation in possession of such ancient chronicles written in what is
still the language of its people.

[16] _Years_.--See O'Curry, _passim_.

[17] _Erinn_.--_Eire_ is the correct form for the nominative. Erinn is
the genitive, but too long in use to admit of alteration. The ordinary
name of Ireland, in the oldest Irish MSS., is (h)Erin, gen. (h)Erenn,
dat. (h)Erinn; but the initial _h_ is often omitted. See Max Mueller's
Lectures for an interesting note on this subject, to which we shall
again refer.

[18] _Poets_.--The _Book of Lecain_ was written in 1416, by an ancestor
of Mac Firbis. Usher had it for some time in his possession; James II.
carried it to Paris, and deposited it in the Irish College in the
presence of a notary and witnesses. In 1787, the Chevalier O'Reilly
procured its restoration to Ireland; and it passed eventually from
Vallancey to the Royal Irish Academy, where it is now carefully
preserved.

[19] _Murdered_.--The circumstances of the murder are unhappily
characteristic of the times. The Celtic race was under the ban of penal
laws for adherence to th