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NOTES.
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Note LXVI.—Page 183,
Had their tin from hence.—That the Greeks and Phoenicians
traded to South Britain for tin,
as early as the time of Herodo.
tus, can admit of no doubt; and hence the British islands are by
him named Cassiterides, Pliny (lib. 7. cap. 56.) mentions In.
sula Cassiteride—i. e. " the Tin Island." If the Celts in
Wales, at so early a period, wrought the tin mines to that extent,
as to supply Greece and Phoenicia, they cannot have been
such savages as Pinkarton represents them. With his usual
etymological mania, he derives Cassiteros (tin) from the Greek
CaMa, meaning a hase woman.
But vfhere, in the name of won,
der, can the name be found, but where the article was produced
and is it not natural to infer that the Greeks borrowed the name
along 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, that
it was at first principally used as mock silver for ornaments to
prostitutes. No such thing is the case. The word is the Celtic
Casse-tair, (pronounced Cassiter) to which the Greeks added
their peculiar termination os, and formed Cassiteros.
Casse.tair
signifies the vulgar or base sheet or bar, to distinguish it from
silver, which is called Airgad—i. e. " the clear or precious sheet
or bar."
This is no vain fancy, for ^n the Gaelic, Tara signifies
the multitude, and Cran Tara, the beam of the multitude, or the
beam of gathering, being used to convoke the multitude on any
sudden emergency.
The adjective Tair signifies any thing per.
taining to the multitude, and hence base or vulgar. So far,
therefore, from Cassiteros being derived from the Greek Cassa,
the Greek Cassa is derived from the Gaelic Casse; a base woman
jbeing to a virtuous one, what tin is to silver. Not only the word,
but the very antithesis is Celtic.
ed with the precious metals.
The Celts were early acquaint,
They could not work the tin mines
vfithout being acquainted with silver; and the Druid's Egg,
from the most remote antiquity, was bound in gold,
X X