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CHAPTER III.

"Muse of all the gifts and graces,
"Though the fields around us wither
"There are ampler realms and spaces
"Where no foot has left its traces
"Let us turn and wander thither."

THIS enchanting muse-nursed region of Deffrobani, 'pa wlad oedd eiddaw 'n Tadau,' as distinguished for its genial atmosphere, as being the chosen pre-Homeric residence of that primitive race, which of old gave laws to Asia Minor, prior, probably, to the departure of Prince Hu Gadarn for Ynys Prydain; this bardic border land of Europe, and of Asia, where all that is stupendous' in art, glorious in science, and all that is divine in metaphysic lore, and god-like faith, once flourished; though stripped, by the all-wise dispensations of Providence, of its former pre-historic glories, on its native Cimbric site, still claim within these walls, and hence to ends of earth, the homage due to druid philosophic creeds, as bardically indoctrinated in the following passages:

"Neud yr Ion, Awdwr Anian;

"Neud Prima Causa, Auctor Naturæ."

Otherwise interpreted, and literally translated :

"Ond i'n Ion, Duw a' i enw' n Jah,

"Duw ni wedid, Ion, Noah."

"But to our First Cause, God and his name in Jah,
"God not formed, the First Cause of Noah."

The truth and essence of these expressions of divine formulæ can thus be traced, throughout the patriarchal world by doctors of the law on the ground, I grant, of captious, erring plausibilities, through the graduating change of mind, as well as the elision or forgetfulness of facts, on man and things, up to the sacred source of Noachidic eleinents, wherein, from will and thought divine, were laws (at first but simple and undeveloped germs, or forms of civil codes, and worship unalloyed by earth) deduced, imposed, revealed to ages of the past, by this our school-as all who wish to see the subject-matter, more discussed, collated, scanned, and taught in ancient Hindu, Chinese, or Ægyptian schools of arts and law, may feel convinced within the regions of their inmost soul-while Noachidic views prevailed, till all, alas! in times

of dark import to man, became, by novel creeds of earthy matter, mere atomical wrecks of former purer thoughts; till all, alas! of what embraced the sacred mass of heaven-born principles turned out, in major portions of the globe, the god-less, life-less, 'baseless fabric of a dream.'

"Tempora mutantur et nos mutantur ab illis."

Before Babylon, Nineveh, or Ecbatana had absorbed all the vital sap and growth, or early manhood-power of the east-the Asia-Minor of our hominum recentum,' of our Deffrobanian Cimmerians, was thickly populated from Mynydd Idd to Mynydd Tor; and, for the most part, to go no farther on the grounds of faith, was—if the slightest imaginable modicum of proof can, for an instant, as it were, from a single flash of light across our chaotic path, be maintained and struck out of the flinty rock from the antiquarian and learned armoury of French and other European historians, or, as better materially expressed and exemplified in the remnant but sad realities of what was once seen and known, left, or taken away as the 'aurea opima spolia belli,' or golden spoils of war, by plundering troops of Asia Major-occu pied by civilised nations and nations, too, of Cimbric blood within their veins.

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Again, I repeat, if I can but find one such proof of Druid existent faith peering forth from the misty gloom or dim twilight of fragmentary evidence, I'll make the world a present of the rest-as dubious problems to their brains, to solve, rebut, disprove as best they can.

In the course of events and epochs lost probably to man for ever, unless, indeed, nature, in some of her operations in, or on, the 'stones' and 'plants' of earth will come unexpectedly to our aid

"With tongues in trees-books in the running streams;
"Sermons in stones-and good in everything,'

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with names that tell of silent deeds beneath the womb of time, an invading Cimmerian corps, aided by their now amalgamated allies and kinsmen, left the porth, or harbour, of Deffrobani in their bene notis cumbis,' across the narrow Beisfor, which in some places is only a few hundred yards in breadth; and landed, vociferating their national songs of joy and warlike enterprise, on the opposite coast of Bithynia and Mysia, which had been either treacherously wrested from their forefathers by the snares of wily men, or, on the contrary, won from them in open fight and manly self-defence, by some enormous trans-Euphratesian corps d'armée, Truppencorps, or Byddin; hence, I argue that the province of

-, say Bythynia, may possiby have been the scene of some signal catastrophe, or blood-stained conflict between the parties

contending for this portion of territory, which was within the hail, the cry, or agonising sight, so to speak, of the wives and children.

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at the city or sea board of Deffrobania itself,-if the Cimbric root Byddin, which is in perfect inflectional accord with Bithyn-ia, and signifying a snare, an ambush, a troop, or army, can be hypothetically or historically entertained.

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But if on the contrary, as is stated in the " Geographie Historique Ancienne," the allied armies of Cimmerians and Thraciens, Thraces Asiam incolentes,' were known under the twofold appellations of, 'des Thraces d'Asie, et des Mariandyns ou Morandyns d'Asie;' I discover the mystery solved-I perceive a clue in the unmistakeable union of design, action, and brotherly accord, that now reigned between these intermingled races or nations, as evinced, outre cela,' in the happy bond-loving adoption of new terms, as Thynniens,' and 'Bithynians,' independant possibly of the Caucones, a branch of the Caucones of Bastarno, (from cae, pl. caeau, fields, inclosures, and cawn, reedgrass), who had contrived, or had been suffered, through acquiescence in the Satrapyan laws of their invaders, to occupy this maritime region, and to hold international intercourse with their kinsmen over the Beisfor. The former name would be derived from the Cimbric root tynu, to draw or pull together, to be cemented, allied; the latter from Byddin, as before, but having its root in bydd, a tie, a keeping together, a confederacy, a league. This derivative view of the case implies a forgetfulness of past wrongs, quarrels, or family feuds; a happy augury for the future, in these seal-ratified symbols of a warın reconciliation,—' in pace requiescant.' As such "les Thrases d'Asie, divises en Thynniens et Bithynians, occupaient sur les rivages de la Propontide et du Bosphore de Thrace, une belle contrèe a l'interieur * * a l'epôque de la domination Persane. Et aussi que les Moryandins [from mor, the sea, and dyn, a person, a man], habitaient des plaines fertiles et couvertes de gras pasturage, et fournissaient d'excellent bois de construction a la riche colonie Greque d'Heraclea."

Long prior, however, to this Bithynian question of supremacy over the maritime coast, which engaged our attention just now, Strabo hints at some other remote pre-historical, traditionary invasions on the part of the Cimmerians over this and the neighbouring districts, not unknown to Homer and his age in the following memorable passage :— Οι Κιμμερωι καθ' Ομηρον προ αυτου μέχρις Ιωνιας επέδραμον την γην την εκ Βοσφορου πασαν. (The Cimmerians, according to Homer, and prior to his own age, made incursions over the whole country bordering on the Bosphorus, as far as Ionia)," &c., and so forth.

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It is manifest, therefore, or rather not very improbable, as you shall by and bye be morally convinced, that the Tauraλaloi Kepuɛpio had, on previous occasions, centuries before the alleged or real epoch of the capture of Troy, in 1270 B. C., occupied Mysia and the Troas; and established themselves on, and at the base of, Mount Ida, and its bardic Caer-Troiau, or Illion, viz., Troy or Illium-and other numerous cities in the Egean provinces; as well as in the trans-marine district of Macedonia, and the isles of the Egean sea, as far as Rhodes (from the root rhyd, what is replete with change-a swift eddying).

But to revert to a much later period in known historic annals. I find that the Thraco-Cimmerian army, on their allied martial enterprise, had succeeded in overrunning and subduing in several pitched battles the mixed races of Mysians, Ionians, Mæonians or Lydians, Carians, and Lycians, and that they had temporarily managed to occupy the city of Smyrna, minus its citadel, during the reign of Adys, till ousted and repelled from the district by his successor, Halyattes II., and that they had, upon this discomfiture, repaired towards Ephesus, Halicarnassus, and the inland Druidical town of Harpasa, besides other inland or maritime cities bordering on Lycia and Pamphylia. The date of this mishap has been elicited by means of early rhymists to have occurred about 600 B. c.

This view of the Thracian-Cimmerian invasion across the Beisfor, from the bardic Gwlad yr Haf, is further supported by the Ephesian poet Callinus, who writes rather feelingly on this domestic, or urban, question; also by Archilochus, and other contemporary rhymists, who flourished about 540 B. C.

Again, in addition to this evidence of a comparatively late date, I read, in the "Geographie Historique Ancienne," of facts and allusions drawn, no doubt, out of sundry recondite Arimaspean and pre-Homeric poems, and other sources not yet sufficiently known, respecting the very remote occupation of Asia Minor by certain primitive inhabitants, other than Ægyptians, Phoenicians, Assyrians, Medes, Persians, and Greeks. Who were they? Whence came they? Can their identification be ascertained on principles of ethnology, religion, architecture, or otherwise? Such were the pre-historic questions I propounded to myself for solution; the task, I admit, is almost hopeless, but an attempt must be made to solve these problems.

To commence, then, with Moonia, or Lydia,—the "Geographie Historique Ancienne" describes it as "Cette riche contree connue primitivement sous le nom de Meonie [Moonia], apres avoir ete pendant plusieurs siecles le siege d'un royaume qui comprenait la plus grand parti de l'Asie Mineure, etait devenue une des provinces de l'Empire des Perses depuis que Cyrus en avait fait la conquête sur Croesus."

I want you to weigh each expression carefully. In other por tions of the history we glean that 'les habitants primitifs du pays had been, ages before, conquered by the dynasty of Croesus. Before I comment further on this passage, I must pay my mead of praise to a newly-devised aspect in this question 'de la domination Persane'.

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In order to confirm their hard-earned conquests, without a perpetual appeal to the force of arms, or the mart or exigency of slavery, some humane policy or other must be struck out to secure the loyalty of the Moonians, or, at all events, to cajole the silence of adhesion. The well-known partiality of the race for music furnished a base of operations to complete the train of political strategy. The tastes of the young Moonians were at once diplomatically cultivated. The influence of education was requisite then as now to show that it "emollit mores nec sinit esse feros."

""Tis education forms the common mind,
"Just as the twig is bent the tree's inclined."

Thus we read in Herod I., 155, and Justin I., 6, that the Persians, though ever too eager for the fray, or flow of rival blood, by complying with the wise behests of Croesus, by fostering the national germs of song and harp, and encouraging the Lydians to become a nation of musicians and traders, succeeded for a while in eradicating all spirit of opposition, or any open display of martial ardour or declared hostility.

We, then, ascertain that its primitive name was Meonie, or Mæonia, and changed into that of Lydia by its conquerors. What does the term signify? It is derived from maen, plural meini, Druidical stones, but whether it comes within the category of maen-resi, of meini-hirion, or of others, I know not. If the former class, they must resemble those of Abury, in Britain, or Carnac and Quiberon, in France, which were arranged in rows (rhesi), of about a hundred yards in breadth, more or less, and consisting of thousands of upright slabs, or enormous blocks of stone, of the average height of twenty feet; but if of the latter, they were solitary long and upright stones, scattered over the length and breadth of a country, like those in the vicinity of Poictiers; and serve, as I was once informed by a royal harpist, now no more, and confirmed by an editor of Welsh triads, either as signals or directing stones, which were placed on mountains and other desolate tracts, for the purpose of guiding a traveller on his journey; or as boundaries for the five or six acre blocks of land usually assigned by the congress as privileges for merit in the social scale'. The Triads, however, describe "three other kinds of stones, for the removal of which an indictment for theft will lye."

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