Greek word IHCOC, or stand for I. H. S. i. e. Jesus Hominum Salvator. The antient Greeks ufed c for , as in that infcription,

ΘΕΟΙ ΑCIAC ΚΑΙ ΕΥΡΩΠΗΣ.

And this continued to the first ages of Christianity. In the Symbole Litterariæ Opufcula of the Florentine academy, vol. iii, are descriptions of many antient croffes, where c often is found for ; indeed the feems to be formed of c, foftened as in the modern French and Spanish ; but on an inscription in the Bafilica Vaticana, erected by Conftantine the great, we find both letters used on the fame marble, viz. пayaoС. HEтгоS, that is, Paulos, Petros, and on a crucifix in the fame church

IHCOYC, XPICTOC, OɛOV, YioC, Cʊthp,

that is, Jefus Chriftus Dei filius Salvator. It is remarkable that Soter is here ufed in the fame fense as Seathar in Irifh, meaning god, ftrength, faviour. The author of the effay concludes in these words, "Quæri hinc coeptum eft, in ideo in facris litteris inditum fit Chrifto fervatoris Zwinges nomen, ut conftaret Chriftum fictitiis inter Deos, & homines fervatoribus nunquam non opponendum, potiorque & optimo jure Dei Σωτῆρος & Regis Σωτῆρος five Aureurs nomen obtinere?" I therefore con-clude, this cup was made about the fifth century.

*

P. M. Pacidius, in the fame vol. p. 222.

THE

THE

HAR P

O F

BRIEN BOIRO MH.

PLATE V.

THE harp from whence this drawing was made,

was handed to me with the following anecdote: "Brien Boiromh being flain in the eighty-ninth year of his age, at the clofe of the most memorable and renowned victory he had gained, over all the united powers of the Danes, on the plain of Clontarf near Dublin, on Good Friday, in the year of our Lord 1014; his two fons by his fecond wife, viz. Teige and Donogh, fucceded to their father as Coregnants on the throne of the two Munsters (Thomond and Desmond.) Teig being treacherously flain at the instigation of his brother Donogh, anno 1023, Donogh took upon himself the fole government of LethMogha, and foon after became chief king of all Ireland; but, after great loffes and humiliations, he was dethroned by his nephew Turrlogh, fon of Teig,

anno

anno 1064*. He then went to Rome to crave the remiffion of fins, particularly of the murder of his brother Teig, and carried with him the crown, harp and other regalia of Brien Boiromh, which he laid at the feet of the pope. The holy father took these prefents as a demonftration of a full fubmiffion of the kingdom of Ireland, and one of his fucceffors Adrian IV. (by name Brakspeare and an Englishman) alledged this circumstance as one of the principal titles he claimed to this kingdom, in his Bull of transferment to King Henry II. These regalia were deposited in the Vatican till the reign of Henry VIII. when the Pope fent the harp to that monarch, with the title of Defender of the Faith, but kept the crown, which was of maffive gold. Henry fetting no value on the harp, gave it to the firft Earl of Clanrickard, in whose family it remained till the beginning of this century, when it came by a lady of the De Burgh family, into that of Mac Mahon of Clenagh, in the County of Clare, after whose death it paffed into the poffeffion of Counsellor Macnamara of Limerick."

In 1782, it was prefented to the Right Hon. Wm. Conyngham, who has depofited it in the Museum of Trinity College.

This Harp is thirty-two inches high & of extraordinary good workmanship: the founding board is of oak; the arms of red-fally: the extremity of the uppermoft arm in front, is capped with filver extremely well wrought and chiffelled: it contains a large crystal set in filver, and under it was another

*See Annals of Tighernach. Chronicon Scotorum. Annals of Innisfalan, and Law of Taniftry. Collectanea, vol. 1, p. 540.

ftone,

ftone, now loft: the buttons or ornamental knobs at the fides of this arm are of filver. On the front arm at a, are the arms of the O'Brien family, chafed in filver, viz. the bloody hand, fupported by hons thefe are reprefented as large as the original in the corner of the plate at a. On the fides of the front arm, within two circles, are two Irish wolfdogs cut in the wood: the holes of the founding board, where the ftrings entered, are neatly ornamented with scutcheons of brass carved and gilt:the large founding holes have been ornamented, probably with filver, as they have been the object of theft. This harp has twenty-eight keys, and as many ftring holes, confequently there were as many ftrings. The foot piece or reft is broken off, and the parts to which it was joined are very rotten. The whole bears evidence of an expert artist. In Montfaucon's Egyptian antiquities, * is a woman playing on a triangular harp, about the fize of our Irish Harp. Polyd. Virgil, fays, the harp of the Hebrews, was in the form of a Greek delta s and had twenty-four ftrings t. The fabulous hifto

ry of the Chinese informs us, that Fou-hi took the wood of Tong, made it hollow, and formed a Kine (harp or lyre, fays Gouget) of twenty-feven ftrings of filk; it was three feet fix inches high: this inftrument he called Li: he took the wood of Sang, and made a Seh or Se (harp, lyre or guitar) of thirtyfix ftrings: But Niu-aua (the Eve of the Chinese) made feveral inftruments of mufic. Seng and the hoang, ferved her to communicate with the winds.

Pompe d'Ifis, Vol. 4. De invent. rer. l. 1. c. XV.

By

By the Kouene, fhe united all founds into one, and made concord between the fun, moon and ftars. She had a Seb of fifty ftrings, whofe found was fo affecting, it could not be borne; therefore the reduced them to twenty-five. *

Here are fo many old Irish words fignifying mufick, melody, harp, &c. one would be inclined to think, that the Chinese had borrowed these terms from the Scythians. The antient Irish had four names for the Harp, and probably each was of a different conftruction, viz. 1. Clar-feh or Clarfeach. 2. Cionar, or Cionthar. 3. Crut or Cruit. 4. Crabtine Cruit or Creamtine Cruit. Clar, fignifies a trough, a desk, a table, a board; and feh, fighe and seach, is harmony, melody; Arab. fhook, harmonious; so that Clarfeach implies the melodious tables. Cionar is evidently the Hebrew and Chaldee Cinura undè v. Crut is alfo the Chaldeep' Kithris, undè Cithara, dapa & guittara; but the Creamhtine Crut or Cream-Crutin, by the name, imports the harp used at potations or caroufals; whence Creamh-nual a noify drunken company, which exactly correfponds with the defcription given by Midras Rabba in Echo, of the Chaldee Top Krut or Krutin; it is, fays he, a profane mufical inftrument ufed in drinking houfes and mufic houses.

Lomna is a cord or ftring of a harp, whence Lomnoir, vulgarly, a Harper. Tead, is alfo a cord or string, and tead miotalte, the ftring of a harp;

* Chinese History by Le Roux des Hautes-Royes, Royal Profeffor.

because