An gaidheal - National Library of Scotland

—188 THE GAEL. August, 1878.gems of all descriiitions, even from The Scots are next mentioned inthe ciiieadic stones, mentioned by the Irish additions to the " HistoriaPliny as fonnd in the beads of certain Britonum." Here we have a poeticalfishes, to the purest form of natural account of theii* wanderings fromrock crystals. To add to the digidty Scythia till they finally landed inIreland. This MS. commences withof such a noble origin on the part ofthe Scots and Picts, the Scythians aresaid to have been the direct descendantsof Magog, son of Japheth, sonof Noah, thus carrying back theirgenealogy to the patriarchal times.Not a bad sti-etch of imagination,some may exclaim ;yet we have evenhere bits of the kernel of truth.Whether the Scots took their namefrom the Scythians, or whether thesimilarity is merely a fanciful one Iwill not say, simply because it is amatter of conjecture. It is not,however, a matter of conjecture whenit is stated that the Celts are thedescendants of the sons of Japheth,and that they peo})led the whole ofEurope and the northern half ofAsia. Whether this is sufficient toaccount for the origin of their legendI know not.However interesting it might beto speculate on their journeys westwardwe dare not do so. Whatdeeds of braveiy they displayed arelocked up among the hidden thingsof time. In this particular channelno bridge crosses the vast gulph, nochronicles exist relating actions ofwhich we can say, " are they notwritten."The Pictish Chronicle also alludeshypothetically to their Egyptianorigin from Scota, daughter ofPharaoh, King of Egypt, and queenof the Scots. The date of theiroccupation of Ireland is I'cferred tothe fourth age of the world, theperiod of the decline of the Egyptianmonarehy, or A.M. 3430. Asthis form of the legend is fretpientlymet with in the historical annals, weshall have occasion to remark on itat another time.a series of questions on the origin ofthe Gael. The following is a freetranslation of the first few veises :" Whence came the Gael renownedin the fierce battle, whence themighty stream that bore them toIreland? whence the land in whichthey were reared brave heroes in thestrife—the Fene? what broughtthem for scarcity of land towardsthe setting sun? was the cavise oftheir wanderings flight, commerce orambition? what is their name as arace, is it Scuitt or Gaidheil?"R. Mac-an-Eothaich.(To he contimied.)GAELIC GRAMMAR ANDORTHOGRAPHY.NOTES BY THE KEV. ALEX. CAMERON.((_ 'outhiued froiib page 25.)1. "An uair a" (when).In such expressions as "an uair athèid mi" (when I shall go), "anuair a bhuaileas mi " (when I shallstrike), the phrase "an uair a," althoughused adverbially, consists of anoun preceded by the article and followedby the relative pronoun ((, thepronoun being used as a conjunctionV^kethat in English and quod in Latin."An uair a thèid mi" is, literally, "thehour or time that I shall go," and"an uair a bhuaileas mi," "the houror time that I shall strike." "A" is,therefore, an essential pai't of the adverbialphrase, and not a mere redundantor eujihouic letter. That" a " after " xiair "is a relative pronounappears also from the fact thatitmay be followed, as above, by the