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NOTES. 341Note LXVl.— Page 183.Had their tin from hence. —That tlie Greeks and Phcenicianstraded to South Britain for tin,as early as the time of Herodotus,can admit of no doubt; and hence the British islands are byhim named Cassitcrides. Pliny (lib. 7. cap. 56.) mentions In.sula Cussiceride— i. e. " the Tin Island." If the Celts inWales, at so early a period, wrouo;ht the tin mines to that extent,as to supply Greece and Phoenicia, they cannot have beeasuch savages as Pinkarton represents them. With his usualetymological mania, he derives Cassi/eros (tin) fromCassa, meaning a ba^e woman.the GreekBat where, in the name of wonder,can the name be found, but where the article was produced ;and is it not natural to infer that the Greeks borrowed the namealong with the article.This we know to be generally the case;for no nation can have a name for a thing totally unknown.Mr,Pinkarton rests his etymology on the groundless assertion, thatit was at first principally used as mock silver for ornaments toprostitutes. No such thing is the case. The word is the CelticCasse-tair, (pronounced Cassiter) to which the Greeks addedtheir peculiar termination os, and formed Cassiieros.Qasse.tairsignifies the vulgar or base sheet or bar, to distinguish it fromsilver, which is called Airgad— i. e. " the clear or precious sheetor bar.'*This is no vain fancy, for in the Gaelic, Tara signifiesthe multitude, and Cran Tara^ the beam of the multitude, or thebeam of gathering, being used to convoke themultitude on anysuddenemergency.The adjective Tair signifies any thing pertainingto the multitude, and hence base or vulgar. So far,therefore, from Cassiteros being derived from the Greek Cassa.,the Greek Qassa is derived from the Gaelic Casse; a base womaubeing to a vi, tuous one, what tin is to silver.but the very antithesis is Celtic.The CeLs were early acquaintedwith the precious metals.Not only the word,They could not work the tin mineswithout being acquainted with silver; and the Druid's Egg;from the most remote antiquity, was bound in gold.X X