as Greeks and Romans, generally converted the difficult Cimmerian sound of th into sh, pt, or ct: as doeth, coeth, maethus, for doct-us, coct-us, and mact-us : hence Arct-urus, or Arth of Uria, or bear of Hyria, or, more probably, the Ur of the Chaldees, with his cubs, or cen-aw, cenach, canach, or cwnach. Taupos, also, from tarw, a bull. Kapkiv-os, from cogwrn, having the elements of cog, a mass, a lump; and cyrn or gyrn, corns or horny claws. The term bootes I derive from bua-tias, as though he were armed with a pair of bows, crooked weapons, or hooks,' wherewith to chase the Arth-fawr, or Ursa-major, from the Corona borealis, an object of strife, or focus of attraction between him and Wrchol, according to the idealities of our astronomical mythi. Dolphin-us is derived from dol, 'absurd, queer, ridiculous,' and fun, puff, a snort, a sound.' This sense is entirely lost in the plagiarisms of Greece and Rome. In this dilemma let nature be consulted on her own domain; her authority, as force of law, is unimpeachable. Let the ancient name prevail, and, as such, let modern tars be requested to explain and imitate its puffing sound, when the porpoise or the dolphin, or dolffun, is plunging up and down the ocean wave, either by the alternate retention or remission of its breath. "Floreat natura perpetuo in omnibus operibus; objurgatores-que omnes argumentis evincat! Draco, or Apakwv, is derived from draig, a dragon, from its element of dra and ig, 'what stands out wildly,' as though in astronomical proximity to Ursa minor. As there are only six words in the Latin commencing with the consonants dr, and as dr are found only in borrowed words, such as dpaμa, Drusus, and in the two obsolete Umbric onomatopees drensio and drindio, which are purely Cimmerian, with the interpretation of 'to move or act with rapidity,' and to give trouble,' respectively, it follows, q.e.d., that the Romans as an original people knew nothing of, and consequently cannot lay claim to a knowledge, as such, of the signs of the Zodiac, but what they afterwards borrowed from the Greeks. Even Aristoteles admits that the Greeks, prior to the time of Pythagoras in 536, B. C., who was the plagiaristic general of Cimmerian druids, were ignorant of a zodiacal astronomy. Consequently the Greeks did not know how "to bring forth Mazzaroth in his season,' in 1520 B. c., i. e., to calculate the nightly or yearly appearances of the twelve signs of Mazzaroth, the delight-emblemed signs of Mawsrhith, the numerous signs of the zodiacal animæ of the Lliawsrhith of the Cimmerian formulæ of our Taliesinian_text. plunder of the starry past! where is thy bastard kudos gone? Nature, indissolubly allied to truth, and faith, and argument, must prevail. Job, the man of Uz, on the one side; the begadkephath of the Hebrews, the bagad-coffu of the Cimmerii, or the memoria technica, or the technical memory of druidic lore, on 0, the other radiating together without collusion on the ocean of time, towards the centre of astronomical truth, and unity of design, have unwittingly corroborated each other!! 66 I leave an Akerman, a De Saussaye, cum multis aliis, to decide, from coins at their command, whether the root of Pleiades, after the star-named example of other natural objects applicable to the senses, and in apparently striking accordance with the feathery and foul-like impression of the coin marked 7" in Archdeacon Williams's essays, can be detected in the term pluad, a feathering, from the element plu, feathers; or whether the root of Hyades, in the expression hwyad, a duck, or some fowl or bird of like import. I also leave them to point out on Cimmerian or Colchisian prehistoric coins, if such be found, the impress of a draig or draco, a tarw or a bull, a llew or a lion, a cerbydwr or an auriga, a dolfin or a dolphin, a cogurn or a crab, an arth or an arctos, with the saith seren,' or the seven stars, and so forth, with the sun and moon and stars, to grace and amplify the varied prepelasgic records of our race, before the coins of Rome, or Greece, or Macedon, by later science willed, were known to fame. The molten loss of stolen coins do not, per se, invalidate this truth. 6 Let us, now, return to modern Caesar and the druids of that day, and ascertain whether any allusions, direct or indirect, to astronomical or other sciences were then current in the world, or whether they found a resting-place on the page of history in addition to those already cited. "According to the commentaries, the druids are described as concerned in divine matters [metaphysical disquisitions], superintending public and private, and interpreting religious, rites. Magnus numerus adolescentium, a vast number of youths used to resort to them for doctrine and instruction. [Were these the painted barbarian savages of Volusenus and the modern European historians?] They determined public and private controversies; and if any crime has been committed, or dispute concerning inheritance or boundaries of land, [were there, then, legally-defined private properties in land?] they assign and decree rewards or compensations and penalties. [as in our own courts of law at the present day]. A refusal to abide by their decree [as in the system of papal excommunication], is ever deemed the heaviest punishment with them. At stated intervals they assemble in a consecrated place, the discipline is thought to have been transferred from Britain into Gaul; and, even now, those who wish to gain knowledge of that subject have diligently to proceed thither for the sake of learning." What? to barbarians for varied instruction! Elsewhere Cæsar goes on to observe, "Illi [the disciples of the Institute] dicuntur ediscere magnum numerum versuum," " They are said to learn by heart a great number of verses," (descriptive, doubtless, of their ancient history, philosophical tenets, and privileges, as will be found discussed in the proper place). What volumes of untold truths are there here! Again he adds that, "They consider it unlawful to commit those mysteries to writing, although commonly in reliquis rationibus publicis privatisque,' they use Greek-like characters." Those over-sapient, over-scrupulous expurgators, however, in their imaginary zeal for a pure, unadulterated text, and in their culpable ignorance of the existence of two distinct alphabets—the one, sui generis, angular and unique of its kind on earth, the other bearing a greater resemblance to the Greek or Hebrew than the Latin of Caesar-ruthlessly and Gothishly stripped the passage of the only epithet or correlative term (i. e., Græcis) by which the 'original characters' could be at all explained or collated. On reference to the plate you will be able to adjudicate the difference between the prehistoric druidical alphabet and the Noachidic coelbren y beirdd, or bardic alphabet, and these again with either Greek, Phoenician, Punic, or Hebrew letters, without the intervention of designing scholiastism. Further on, Cæsar remarks that "in addition to their magisterial and judicial functions, they deliver frequent discourses, or lectures, to the youth, [like our friends, the learned and accomplished professors of the Melbourne University], "de sideribus atque eorum motu, de magnitudine mundi ac terrarum, de natura rerum, de vi, ac potestate, immortalium Deorum": "on the stars and their motion, on the magnitude of the world and earth, on the nature of things, on the influence and power of the immortal gods." "Tis pleasant through the loopholes of retreat SARONIDES. They awoke one morning and found themselves famous." AGAIN, Greek philosophers point out another druidical term, under the designation of Zapovides, or Saronides. It will be my duty to discover, if possible, the meaning, as well as the applicability of the root, either to the body corporate, as they did, or to a detached professional branch, or order of the same, according to Cimmerian versions. The name, I apprehend, owed its original signification to an observatory, or troiau, erected on an eminence, in close proximity to an aduton, allor cysegredig, or consecrated altar, which, in the lapse of prehistorical ages, became distinguished for its capacious oak-grove temple of a Saron, or Saronis, by reason of the reputed sanctity, learning, and varied attainments of its graduated cowyddion, or associates, (from caw, associated,) as the 'sodalitiis astricti consortiis' of Ammianus Mercellinus, but particularly for the world-spread reputation of its astronomical professors, its Saronyddion, or Seryddion, who thus became, so to speak, the corresponding members of the Phoenician, Hellenic, Ionian. Phocœan, Punic, and other oriental philosophical and scientific schools. Hence σapovides, saronides, became the generic term for druidical astronomers, as saronyddion. The former being derived from ser, or seren, a star, and honi, to explain, to make manifest.' The latter, also, from ser and ydd, conspicuous. Thus each form of expression tends to signify pointers out,' indicators or explainers of stars: in fine, astronomers druidical of a Saron, Saronis, or a Troiau.' 66 Thus foreigners of distinction would be induced, from age to age, to pay them the compliment of a visit, as evidenced in the Hellenic philosophers, and Himalco of Carthage, who, possibly, may have been sent as deputations from their respective countries to renew the bonds of literary and scientific knowledge cemented by the annual or triennial travels of an Abaris, the Hyperborean druid, his predecessors, as well as his delegated successors. Hecatæus, also, of Miletus, who flourished in the sixth century a man of profound attainments in the science of government and philosophy," expressly states " that certain Hellenic philosophers, about the seventh century B. C., passed over to the Hyperboreans, and left in their [saronidaic] temples precious dedicated gifts bearing Hellenic inscriptions," and so forth; not unlike, I presume, certain astronomers, philosophers, and visitors-imperial, royal, grand ducal, and republican, who are wont to do the same at this day, with the interchange of presents from one civilized country to another. B. C., In triad eighty-nine we read of three illustrious astronomers as "Tri Gwyn seronyddion Prydain. Idris gawr a Gwyddion mab Don, a Gwyn ab Nudd. A chan faint eu gwybodau am y ser a'u hansoddau y darogenynt, a chwennychid ei wybod hyd yn nydd brawd.' From this triad we learn that these three celebrated astronomers, Idris the Giant, Gwydion, and Gwyn ab Nudd, had observed and studied the phenomena of the heavens, were cognizant of the motions and revolutions of the planets, and were capable not only of predicting their periodical return, but of calculating their movements, hyd yn nydd brawd.' This expression is considered by some as rather ambiguous, and as such demands a passing investigation. It admits of two interpretations; first, nydd, signifying a twisting, or retrograde motion of the judgment; secondly, the day, or era, of judgment: what judgment? If the former interpretation be accepted reference is made, possibly, to a 'prorsum et rursum' action of the intellect, so as to be able by the exercise of their judgment to re-calculate the precise epochs of the orbits of the heavenly bodies at any given period, as demanded by the institute. If the latter opinion, which I prefer, be taken, it refers back to the deluge as a day of retribution, a day of judgment, ever to be remembered by the children of men. In either case these astronomers were able to make observations,' and 'found calculations' thereon, up to the deluge, or vice versâ, which is all I contend for. In reference to the latter clause of this triad the learned author of "Hanes Cymry" gives the following annotation, which I have endeavored to anglicise :— "There is a tradition," says Carnuanhawc, the historian, "among the Arabians respecting a skilful and erudite astronomer of the name of Idris, who, they assert, was no other than Enoch, the antediluvian; the latter clause of the 97th triad containing these memorable words, 'main Gwyddon Ganhebon, lle y darllenid arnynt holl gelfyddydau a gwybodau y byd;' i. e., the slabs or blocks of stone of Gwyddon Ganhebon, on which the arts and knowledge of the world can be read or deciphered,'—seems to point out a remarkable similarity to the eastern tradition respecting the alleged antediluvian slabs carved and modelled by Enoch in order to keep the arts and sciences from being lost in the deluge; but how, and in what manner, such traditions came to Prydain I know not. It is manifest that they have existed here centuries upon centuries, for it cannot be a name derived from the mountain in Meirion, as Cader Idris is an appellation of a comparative modern date in our sense of modernity. The triad appears to retain certain vague notions of the deluge. It is clear that the tradition was not taken out of the scriptures." Since |