Chapter XXXIII: Appendix: A

IRELAND AND PHOENICIA.

The following extract is taken from _Britain and the Gael: or Notices of Old and Successive Races; but with special reference to the Ancient Men of Britain and its Isles_.--Wm. Beal, London, 1860.

Plautus, a dramatic writer, and one of the great poets of
antiquity, who lived from one to two centuries before the Christian
era; was mentioned in the last section. In his Pænulus, is the tale
of some young persons said to have been stolen from Carthage, by
pirates, taken to Calydonia, and there sold; one of these was
Agorastocles, a young man; the others were two daughters of Hanno,
and Giddeneme, their nurse. Hanno, after long search, discovered
the place where his daughters were concealed, and by the help of
servants who understood the Punic language, rescued his children
from captivity. Plautus gives the supposed appeal of Hanno, to the
gods of the country for help, and his conversations with servants
in the Punic language, are accompanied with a Latin translation.
The Punic, as a language, is lost, and those long noticed, but
strange lines had long defied the skill of learned men. But at
length, by attending to their vocal formation (and all language,
Wills states, is addressed to the ear). It was discovered by
O'Neachtan, or some Irish scholar, that they were resolvable into
words, which exhibited but slight differences from the language of
Keltic Ireland. The words were put into syllables, then translated
by several persons, and these translations not only accorded with
the drama, but also, with the Plautine Latin version. The lines
were put to the test of more rigid examination, placed in the hands
of different persons one of whom was Dr. Percy, bishop of Dromore.
They were also given to different Irish scholars for translation,
to persons who had no correspondence with each other on this
subject, nor knew the principal object in view; and by the whole
the same meaning was given.

Bohn's edition, by H. T. Riley, B.A., is before the writer; but from the edition used by the late Sir W. Betham, some few lines from Plautus, with the Gaelic or Irish underneath, are given, and the eye will at once perceive how closely the one resembles the other. Milphio, the servant of Agorastocles, addressed Hanno and his servants in Punic, and asked them "of what country are you, or from what city?"

The following is the reply, and the supposed appeal of Hanno to the god, or gods of the country:--

_Plautus._ { Hanno Muthumballe bi Chaedreanech.
_Irish._ { Hanno Muthumbal bi Chathar dreannad.
_English._ { I am Hanno Muthumbal dwelling at Carthage.

_Plautus._ { Nyth al O Nim ua-lonuth sicorathissi me com syth.
_Irish._ { N'iaith all O Nimh uath-lonnaithe socruidhse me comsith.
_English._ { Omnipotent much dreaded Deity of this country, assuage my
troubled mind.

_Plautus._ { Chim lach chumyth mum ys tyal mycthi barii im schi.
_Irish._ { Chimi lach chuinigh muini is toil miocht beiridh iar mo
scith.
_English._ { Thou the support of feeble captives, being now exhausted
with fatigue, of thy free will guide me to my children.

_Plautus._ { Lipho can ethyth by mithii ad ædan binuthi.
_Irish._ { Liomtha can ati bi mitche ad eadan beannaithe.
_English._ { O let my prayers be perfectly acceptable in thy sight.

_Plautus._ { Byr nar ob syllo homal O Nim! Ubymis isyrthoho.
_Irish._ { Bior nar ob siladh umhal O Nimh! ibhim A frotha.
_English._ { An inexhaustible fountain to the humble; O Deity! Let me
drink of its streams.

_Plautus._ { Byth lym mo thym noctothii nel ech an ti daise machon.
_Irish._ { Beith liom mo thime noctaithe, neil ach tanti daisic mac
coinne.
_English._ { Forsake me not! my earnest desire is now disclosed, which
is only that of recovering my daughters.

_Plautus._ { Uesptis Aod eanec Lic Tor bo desiughim lim Nim co lus.
_Irish._ { Is bidis Aodh eineac Lic Tor bo desiussum le mo Nimh co
lus.
_English._ { And grateful Fires on Stone Towers will I ordain to blaze
to Heaven.

_Plautus._ { Gau ebel Balsameni ar a san.
_Irish._ { Guna bil Bal-samen ar a san.
_English._ { O that the good Bal-samhen (_i.e._ Beal the sun) may
favour them.
Act v. scene 1 and 2.

This alleged work of Plautus, and these strange lines, have long been before the world, and under the notice of men of letters. Is there any reason to doubt whether it is genuine? If not, can it be supposed that the writer purposely placed some strange jargon before his readers to bewilder them? and if so, by what singular hazzard should it so closely resemble the language of the Gael. Plautus avers, that Milphio addressed the strangers (Hanno and servants), in Punic, and declared to Agorastocles, his master, that "no Punic or Carthaginian man speaks Punic better than I". Unless these statements can be proved to be worthless, will they not as connecting links appear to say, probably the Gaels of Britain, and the Punic people of Carthage, were branches of the old and once celebrated race, known as Phenicians?