1 Clounish

2 Devenish Isle

3 Downpatrick

4 Dromifkin

5 Drumboe 6 Drumlane 7 Drumcliff

8 Killala

9 Mahera

10 Monafterboife

11 Newcastle near Foxfort

12 Ram Isle, (Loughneagh)
13 Sligo
14 Turlogh

(M, 510.)

(M, 510.) MANANAN, a Manx Chronicle, tranflated from the original,

MANANAN beg, hight Mac y Ler
Was he the first that ruled the land,
A Paynim and a Sorcerer
He was as best I understand.

Not with his fword or with his bow,
That he his conqueft could maintain;
But when an hoftile fleet he saw,
He caufed a mift to intervene.

Around the coaft on every height,
If he but placed a fingle man,
There by his Necromantick art,
Appeared a formidable clann.

Thus from all enemies fecure,

And his dominions all in peace,

He long maintained a regal fway
O'er fubjects fearless and at ease.

Their yearly tribute but a load
Of bent, or rushes, from the plain;
From every quarter of the land,
Brought in at midfummer, a main.

Some were obliged to carry it up,
And lay it down on famed Barrool,
Some were indulged below to stop,
At Manin's Court above Kemool.

Thus

Thus lived the inhabitants of man,
So light their tribute and fo bleft,
Devoid of trouble or of care,
Or toil, to mar their happy rest.

But now Saint Patrick soon arrives,
Superior in every art,

And o'er the waves Mananan drives
With that vile crew that took his part.
&c. &c. &c. &c.

With all fubmiffion to the very ingenious editor of Fingal, nothing feems more evident than that the perfonage characterized by the King of the Mifts, (p. 4.) and in the poem (p. 13.) must have been no other than this fabulous King of the Isle of Mann, and not any King of Sky or the Hebrides as the compiler fuppofes. Thus the province of Ulfter in Ireland, and the Western part of Scotland, being made the dominion of Fingal, nothing could be more natural than for the Bard to introduce Mann, an ifland lying in full view of both. (a) There is a tradition that Mananann was fon to the King of Ulfter, and brother to Fergus the Ild. King of Scotland, placing him in the third century, in the fame manner as the Bards bring Offian down to the time of Patrick; but these are all the inventions of idle Monks and Bards of modern times. The Kings of Mann were Kings of the whole or the greatest part of the Hebrides, Sky and all, as appears from the ancient records of Mann, where it is affirmed that the Reprefentatives or Keys (b) as they are called, were chofen 16 from the elders of Mann and eight from the other islands, so that the poet might call him either King of Mann or of the Hebrides.

(a) See Preface.

(b) Ce or Ke, Hib. Magnates, Perficè Ke Princeps.

!

The

The Manx poets are not behind their neighbours in compofi-
tions on Offian; they fay he was the fon of Om, (c) the great pro-
phet of the ancient Persians or Scythians, and their descendants
the Irish, Erfe and Manx, for they were three fods of one native
foil, as they are called by an ancient Irish poet, fpeaking the
fame language, governed by the fame laws, enjoying the fame
customs, and poffeffing all the Britannic Mes, till difunited
and broken by invafions from the North and from Gaul. The
Manx poets have brought Mananann down to the time of Pa-
trick-not fo with their Offian, unlike the Scotch and Irish
Bards, they have preferved the Pagan æra throughout.

Ubi multa pulchritudo, ibi multa deceptio;
Ubi multum lumen, multa excæcatio.

(c) Oshin Mac Owm, or the fon of Om, the God of Terror. See
conclufion, ch. ix. in the Hindostan collated with the Irish.

INDEX

1