he reached Erinn after suffering great hardships on the high seas, which in this instance are made to include the Caspian. When he landed in Ireland, his people consisted of only four married pairs; but they multiplied until they were no fewer than 34,000 such pairs. The next to come to take possession of the island was one Semion son of Stariath, and from him and his people descended the Fir Bolg, the Fir Domnann and the Gailióin, of whom more anon. Their leader is elsewhere sometimes called Simeon Brec or the Freckled (p. 213), and the invasion of the island under his command is collectively known as that by the Fir Bolg. These last survived there to fight with the next comers, who were led by Beothach son of Iardonel Fáith, that is I. the Vates or Seer (p. 202), and this was the race of the Tuatha Dé Danann, whose origin is unknown, except that the learned guess, as the writer says, that they were of the number of the exiles driven out of heaven; but he treats them as consisting of gods and not-gods, terms which he proceeds to apply to them as human inhabitants of the island, and to explain to mean men in political and professional authority, and men devoted to husbandry and farming respectively. So he knew no more than we what was originally meant by describing the Tuatha Dé as gods and not-gods;[1] and his story in the Book of the Dun is brought to an abrupt close owing to the loss of a part of the manuscript, but it is well known from other sources that the fifth invasion was that of Mile and his sons. His name means Soldier, and he is once called quidam
- ↑ It is evidently an old formula: it ocean in the Bk. of the Dun, 16b, 77a; Bk. of Leinster, 9a, 75b; and it has been suggested to me to compare it with the Sanskrit deva and adeva.
