thirty years, which was the period of its revolution round the sun. Now if that was, or was supposed to be, the true position of the planet at the Deluge, no better commemoration of the event could be devised, than that which they practised as often as they witnessed the same conjunction of stars; for on that occasion, they sent forth ships prepared long before', and well provided with stores, to seek an island of safety, an Ararat in a distant ocean. Hence the cycle of thirty years became their annus magnus; but so much was their astronomy controlled by their religious mysteries, that those periods, as well as their ordinary years and months, took their beginning from the sixth day of the moon2; a practice for which it would be difficult to account upon any other principle than this. It was precisely that age of the moon, which gives her the greatest resemblance to the double-prowed Baris; and for this reason the day was called Allheal, and on this day the sacred misseltoe was gathered, which presents to view a similar emblem at every joint.

1 Παρασκευασαμένους ἐν χρόνῳ πολλῷ τὰ περὶ τὴν θυσίαν καὶ τὸν ἄποπλουν ἐκπέμπειν, &c. Plut. de Facie in Orbe Lunæ, s. 26. The Æthiopians had a custom appointed by the oracles of the gods 600 years before, of sending two men in a ship, with six months' provisions, to sail to the south in search of a fortunate island, where the people were gentle and kind, and lived happy lives. Diod. Sic. lib. ii. c. 4. Herod. Euterp. c. 39. Parke's Travels, p. 43. Bruce, i. 251.

2 Pliny, Nat. Hist. lib. xvi. c. 44.

189

CHAP. XVIII.

THE ARGONAUTIC EXPEDITION.

THAT the British Isles should have enjoyed so much credit, and been the subject of so many allusions in the writings of Grecian authors, need not be matter of astonishment, when it is considered that, according to the testimony of Diodorus, a frequent and familiar intercourse was maintained between the two countries,—an intercourse which was founded upon community of religious rites, through the medium of A-baris', and existed even from the earliest times; for their acquaintance began even before that first recorded voyage, beyond which all is darkness in the annals of Greece, the celebrated voyage of the Argonauts, which seemed so great a wonder to succeeding ages, on account of its length and its dangers, and the knowledge which it brought to light, that their indiscriminate admiration confounded it with the voyage of the Patriarchs over the waters of the Deluge, and bestowed upon the ship the name of Argo, or the Ark. Homer calls it the ship in which all have an interest2; and Virgil mentions

1 Τοὺς ὑπερβορέους πρὸς τοὺς Ἕλληνας οἰκειότατα διακεῖσθαι, καὶ μάλιστα πρὸς τοὺς ̓Αθηναίους καὶ Δηλίους, ἐκ παλαιῶν χρόνων παρεις ληφότας τὴν εὔνοιαν ταύτην· καὶ τῶν Ἑλλήνων τινὰς μυθολογοῦσι παρα βαλεῖν εἰς ὑπερβορέους καὶ ἀναθήματα πολυτελή καταλιπεῖν· ὡσαύτως δὲ καὶ ̓Αβαρὶν, &c. Diod. Sic. lib. ii. p. 130.

it as the type of all other ships: but it would be a great mistake to suppose that it was the first, or even the largest, that had ever been constructed, for reasons which will presently appear. An Irish tradition of this voyage claims attention first, not on account of its clearness, for it is very indistinct; but some facts may be gleaned out of the confusion, which, by their coincidence with the statements of the classic authors, tend strongly to corroborate their truth in those points where they agree: for they are wholly independent witnesses, and neither can be supposed to have borrowed from the other, because the subject is history; and therefore, by how much the less the Irish tradition can boast of ornament or regularity, by so much the more it deserves credit, as having a groundwork of truth: for though it is sadly disfigured by the ignorance through which it has passed, yet it has not been perverted by the wantonness of poetry. Keating, then, who collected Irish history out of ancient records, relates that Niul, or rather the children of Niul, were driven from Armenia2 and passed into the Euxine, where one of them Miless, the lord of the ship, married Scota, the daughter of the

1 Alter erit tum Tiphys, et altera quæ vehat Argo Delectos heroas. Bucol. iv. 34.

2 The translator of Keating maintains that Frange is Armenia, as well as France; when the king of Frange sent troops to Wexford, it must be the latter; but the history of the voyage necessarily implies the former.

3 Miles and Hercules are the same constellation. Vallancey quotes a line from a poem of Amergin in the book of Leacan. Tuatha mac Mileadh, Mileadh Longe Libearn; and translates it thus: Lords were the sons of Milesius, Milesius of the Libearn ship. Libearn is clearly the same as Liburna, the sacred ship of Isis, iv. 294.

king of Scythia, who was jealous of him, and was conquered by him. Now it is quite true, that the children of the Nile passed from the land of inundations into the Euxine, and settled among the Scythians at Colchi, which, it has been shown, was an Egyptian colony'; and Scota is Medea, whose father was conquered by Jason. They then sailed up the narrow sea, that divides Asia from Europe, keeping Europe on the left; or, as it is described in another place, the narrow sea that flows from the Northern Ocean. They staid a year in the island Chronia, which perhaps is Oesel, the island of El, or Cronus, or else Dago, the island of Dagon.2 But a Caiker, or prophet, informed them that they would have no resting-place till they arrived at a certain western isle. They proceeded westward on their voyage, and landed at the island of Guthia, now Gothland; and then leaving Catria, the country of the Catti, on the left, they passed through the Cattegat, and keeping a south-west course, came to the Crutines or Picts, at a place called Alba; then leaving Breatan-mor, the greater Britain, on their right, they arrived at Erotha, the classic Erytheia, which is also called Anspain." Vallancey would interpret this of Ireland, and lands the voyagers there at once. But it is more likely that the persons, who imported the knowledge of these facts, came at a subsequent period from Gades; whence they were called Gadeli. A

1 Diod. Sic. lib. i. p. 24.

2 Dago is the name of a stone, worshipped by the natives of Easter Island in the Pacific. - Faber's Orig. of Pag. Idol. ii, 380.

3 Vindic. of Ir. Hist. Collectanea, iv. 279. 292.

Spanish writer, Pedro Mexia, speaks of certain Spaniards who, understanding that divers of the Western Isles were empty, proceeded in sixty vessels to Ireland.' It does not follow from hence that they found it empty; but it proves the Spanish belief of an early transmigration to the Hesperides. It is not to be supposed that the same continuity of narrative is to be found in the Celtic historian, as in the description here given; but by comparing his loose statements, and assigning to each its proper place, evidence enough has been obtained to prove that Britain was visited by the adventurous Argonauts; and, by pursuing the inquiry further, we shall find sufficient warrant for the assertion of the poet, that Ireland was well known to the crew of Jason's ship2: for if we turn to the writers of Greece and Rome, they are almost unanimous in their testimony, that the Atlantic Ocean was explored by them. Pindar, indeed, mistook the site of the Hesperides, which he must have placed in Africa; for he sends his heroes there 3; but still, even according to him, the Hesperides were the object of their voyage. For nothing could have induced him to send them to the Tritonian lake, except its vicinity to those Hesperian gardens. Valerius Flaccus knew that he ought to bring them somehow or other out of the Euxine into the Atlantic; but for that purpose, he pro

2

1 Vindic. of Ir. Hist. Collectanea, iv. 325.

Illa ego sum Græcis olim glacialis Ierne

Dicta, et Jasoniæ puppis bene cognita nautis.

3 Pind. Pyth. Od. iv.

Hadrianus Junior, cited by Camden.