e faith of their fathers. The murderer was free.
As the old historian travelled to Dublin, he rested at a shop in
Dunflin. A young man came in and took liberties with the young woman who
had care of the shop. She tried to check him, by saying that he would be
seen by the gentleman in the next room. In a moment he seized a knife
from the counter, and plunged it into the breast of Mac Firbis. There
was no "justice for Ireland" then, and, of course, the miscreant escaped
the punishment he too well deserved.

[20] _Lost_.--He was also employed by Sir James Ware to translate for
him, and appears to have resided in his house in Castle-street, Dublin,
just before his death.

[21] _Betaghs_.--Poems, by D.F. Mac Carthy.

[22] _Noah_.--This is a clear argument. The names of pre-Noahacian
patriarchs must have been preserved by tradition, with their date of
succession and history. Why should not other genealogies have been
preserved in a similar manner, and _even the names of individuals_
transmitted to posterity?

[23] _Laws_.--MacFirbis. Apud O'Curry, p. 219.

CHAPTER III.

First Colonists--The Landing of Ceasair, before the Flood--Landing of
Partholan, after the Flood, at Inver Scene--Arrival of Nemedh--The
Fomorians--Emigration of the Nemenians--The Firbolgs--Division of
Ireland by the Firbolg Chiefs--The Tuatha De Dananns--Their Skill as
Artificers--Nuada of the Silver Hand--The Warriors Sreng and Breas--The
Satire of Cairbre--Termination of the Fomorian Dynasty.

[A.M. 1599.]

We shall, then, commence our history with such accounts as we can find
in our annals of the pre-Christian colonization of Erinn. The legends of
the discovery and inhabitation of Ireland before the Flood, are too
purely mythical to demand serious notice. But as the most ancient MSS.
agree in their account of this immigration, we may not pass it over
without brief mention.

The account in the _Chronicum Scotorum_ runs thus:--

"Kal. v.f.l. 10. Anno mundi 1599.

"In this year the daughter of one of the Greeks came to Hibernia, whose
name was h-Erui, or Berba, or Cesar, and fifty maidens and three men
with her. Ladhra was their conductor, who was the first that was buried
in Hibernia."[24] The Cin of Drom Snechta is quoted in the Book of
Ballymote as authority for the same tradition.[25] The Book of Invasions
also mentions this account as derived from ancient sources. MacFirbis,
in the Book of Genealogies, says: "I shall devote the fir