5

NOTES. 273
name for the purpose, whilst Mr, Toland from the Irish records
has given us a dozen, is a very singular fact. I shall, however,
in my dissertation on the antiquity of the Irish manuscripts, account
for this singularity.
Note XXVII.—Page 104.
Bachrach, Sfc.—This is another of these well intended, though
disingenuous attempts, to propagate Christianity by falsehood.
It stands in no need of such surreptitious aid. It is, however.'
no small proof of the authenticity, as well as the antiquity, of the
Irish records, that the eclipse which happened at that memo,
rable crisis, was observed and transmitted to posterity by the
Irish.
Note XXVIII.—Page 105,
That Patric burnt 300 volumes, 8^c.—Having reserved my remarks
on the antiquity of the use of letters in Ireland, till towards
the close of these notes, I shall only point out {o the reader,
that the use of letters must have been long known in Ireland,
prior to Patric's arrival, else he could have found no books to
burn.
Note XXIX.—Page 107,
Adder-stanes, £{c.—Mr. Toland is here perfectly correct whea
he ascribes this name to the lowlands of Scotland. I have in my
younger days heard the tradition respecting them a hundred
times. The very same story is told of the Adder-stanes, which
Pliny relates of the Druid's Egg, without the omission of one
single circumstance. The reader will see the Druid's Egg treated
of at length in the 12th note.
Note XXX.—Page 107,
Glaine nan Druidhe,—This was the Druid's Egg already
treated of. If we may credit Dr. Smith, he tells us (page 62)
that, this glass physician is sometimes sent for fifty miles to cure