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ISiiiro.NOTES, 405From the extent of their territories, they must have beeathe most numerous, as well as the most powerful, of the Scottishtribes. But what is most to our present purpose ia, thatthey occupied that very part of Scotland which approaches nearestto Ireland. An island cannot be inhabited or sought aftertill it is known, and who could know it sooner than the Damnii^>vho lived within sight of it.The Irish, indeed, p.acs the Firholg(Belgae) in Ireland 250 years before the Damnily but thi.^is contrary to all probability; and it is well known, that inevents of remote r "^tiquity, nations do not err so much in matterof fact, as in poini of chronological accuracy.The Irish themselvesexpressly say that the Tuath de Dannan came from Scotlandto Ireland. In this case we have— Imo, The testimony ofPtolemy, who places the Damnii in that very point of Scotlandwhich approaches nearest to Ireland—2do, The direct and positivetestimony of the Irish themselves, that the Damnii camefrom Scotland.Till, therefore, Whitaker, Pinkarton, &c. canplace their respective hypotheses respecting the early populationof Ireland, on a basis equally sure and stable (which is irapossible),Scotland is well entitled to reckon itself the parent of Ireland.The circumstance of an Irish colony having settled iaArgyleshire about the middle of the thirdcentury, can by nomeans invalidate this claim, but greatly confirms it; for in thehour of danger or difficulty, where does a child more naturallytake shelter than in the arms of its mother ? That Scotland affordedIreland the bulk of its early population, we have alreadyseen.Hence the intimacy betwixt them must have been great,and the intercourse frequent ; and the migration of a colony fromthe one country to the other, was merely a matter of course.But though the publication of the Irish manuscripts could notfail to throw light on the whole early history of Scotland, thereis another point which it might perhaps absolutely determine—mean the authenticity of OssiaiVs Poems. Here, as in mostother matters, we have the same perplexity and confusion.Bothnations claim Fingal and his heroes. The Irish have, however,^Ifiid only a faint and feeble claim to the po?ras of Ossian. The3 F