a, from whom
was derived the name of Ardladhan. These people lived forty years in the
country, and at last they all died of a certain distemper in a week's
time. From their death, it is said that the island was uninhabited for
the space of an hundred years, till the world was drowned. We are told
that the first who set foot upon the island were three fishermen that
were driven thither by a storm from the coast of Spain. They were
pleased with the discovery they had made, and resolved to settle in the
country; but they agreed first to go back for their wives, and in their
return were unfortunately drowned by the waters of the Deluge at a place
called Tuath Inbhir. The names of these three fishermen were Capa,
Laighne, and Luasat. Others, again, are of opinion that Ceasar, the
daughter of Bith, was the first that came into the island before the
Deluge.... When Noah was building the ark to preserve himself and his
family from the Deluge, Bith, the father of Ceasar, sent to desire an
apartment for him and his daughter, to save them from the approaching
danger. Noah, having no authority from Heaven to receive them into the
ark, denied his request. Upon this repulse, Bith Fiontan, the husband of
Ceasar, and Ladhra her brother, consulted among themselves what measures
they should take in this extremity."

The result was, that, like the Laird of Macnab, they "built a boat o'
their ain," but on a much larger scale, being a fair match with the ark
itself. But justice should be done to every one. The learned Dr Keating
does not give us all this as veritable history; on the contrary, being
of a sceptical turn of mind, he has courage enough to stem the national
prejudice, and throw doubt on the narrative. He even rises up into
something like eloquent scorn when he discusses the manner in which some
antediluvian annals were said to be preserved. Thus:--

"As for such of them who say that Fiontan was drowned in the Flood, and
afterwards came to life, and lived to publish the antediluvian history
of the island--what can they propose by such chimerical relations, but
to amuse the ignorant with strange and romantic tales, to corrupt and
perplex the original annals, and to raise a jealousy that no manner of
credit is to be given to the true and authentic chronicles of that
kingdom?"

I shall quote no more until after the doctor, having exhausted his
sceptical ingenuity about the antediluvian stories, finds himself again
on firm ground,