History of the Irish state to 1014 - National Library of Scotland

14 HISTORY OF THE IRISH STATE chap.their king Eochaid and his wife Tailtiu law and justiceprevailed, assembhes and courts were held at fixed datesevery year, and solemn judgments were given on thesite of Tailtiu's dwelling and of her burial. Evidentlythese people left a reputation for political sagacity, andthe founding of ordered States and Law.IV. Last of all invaders came, the race known by afiction of learned invention as the Children of Mil(probably from miles, a soldier) or Milesians, whosesettlement was timed against the world sovereignty ofAlexander the Great. Their pedigrees and their wanderingswere invented by the busy genealogists from theseventh to the ninth centuries a.d. Scholars compiledfor them a descent from Japhet, but the pedigrees werenot agreed as to which of Japhet's sons was the ancestorof the Gaelic race. The land of their origin was disputed,since the names later attached to them, Scottiand Iveri, were supposed to resemble those of the Scythiand Iberi, and to point to original homes in Scythia orin Spain—Scythia being the most favoured idea. Thestory of their wanderings in exile from their first countrytill they reached Ireland followed the geography of theworld as it was ignorantly supposed to be by Orosiusand Latin writers of the fourth century. The place oftheir first landing—Inber Scene—has not been identified,unless it may be a scribe's error for Sena, the Shannon.On May ist the feast of Beltene, they were supposed,like the first colonists under Parthalon, to open theirconquest of Ireland. Driven from the south by a magicstorm which scattered and wrecked their ships, theymade a second landing at the Boyne, where after avictory at Tailtiu the sons of Mil, Eremon and Eber,divided the land between them.The pride of the conquering race is shown by thedescription preserved in MacFirbis' Genealogies of themselvesand of their subjects. " Everyone who is white(of skin), brown (of hair), bold, honourable, daring,prosperous, bountiful in the bestowal of property.