412
WHEN WERE
THE
BOUND
TOWERS
BUILT.
has
been
just
stated
in
these
pages,
that
the
Round
Towers
had
been
the
work of men skilled in the art
of
build-
ing
j
and we have seen that
mankind
possessed
greater
knowledge
some two thousand
years
before
the
Christian
era than
they possessed
at a later
period.
The Round
Towers
must,
therefore,
have been
built at
that
time,
when
men were
best skilled
in
science
and in
the
arts
of
building.
The
records
in stone
in
Egypt,
in
Syria,
and
Persia
tell us
that
this was
the
earliest
period
after the
deluge,
when men were
cyclopean,
if
not in
stature,
at
least
in
power
of
mind.
Comparative
philology proves
the truth
;
and it
is
quite
in accord with all that
civil
and
sacred
history
testifies.
The
science
of
comparative
philology
treats this
ques-
tion
apart
from
history,
just
as
geology investigates
the
truths of
the
physical
world,
or
astronomy
those which
treat of
the relative
movements,
size
and
splendour,
times
and
spaces,
of
the
heavenly
bodies.
Comparative
philology,
apart
from
history,
shows
that all the
migrations
to an-
cient
Eire were of Keltic
origin.
This view
is
confirmed
by
the
words
of
Sir William
Wilde.
Now
all
these
peoples
those
who
came
with
Partha-
lon,
the
Fomorians,
Nemidians
Tuatha
de
Dannans,
Fir-
bolgs,*
Milesians the
patriotic navigator
along
our
coasts
,
the
mid-Europe primitive Shepherd
and Culti-
vator
;
the
Northern
Warrior,
and
the Iberian
Ruler,
were,
according
to
my (Sir
William's)
view,
all
derived
from
one Keltic stock.
They spoke
the
same
language,
and
their descendants
do
so still.
When
they
acquired
a
knowledge
of
letters,
they
transmitted
their
history
*
Fir,
means
"men
;"
"bolg,"
of
bags,
Fomorians,
"fog," booty,
"
mara,"
of
the
sea.
To
this
day
"
sea-bathers"
are called
in
Irish
"Foghmaires,"
in Clare and
Galway.
Thuatha,
a
tribe,
a
country,
a class
of
people
living
in a rural
district,
de,
of
Dannan
bold
people,
or
Dannans.