Chapter XXVIII: (pp. 412-431)

These proofs of an adventitious civilisation bearing the marks, not of gradual growth, but of full development, point to the colonisation of the island by a highly-cultured race, such as were the ancient people of _Iran_ (Persia). The round towers, for instance, could not well have been the work of the Phœnicians, who were a maritime and mercantile race, by no means prone to arts and letters, and in none of whose admitted settlements is any trace of similar buildings to be found. Neither the Firbolgs (or Celtic inhabitants of Ireland), nor the Fomorians, nor the Scythians, Scoto-Milesians, nor Danish invaders, were at all given to the refinements of civilisation, and simply regarded the construction of permanent buildings as unworthy of a race of warriors. Everything, in fact, goes to show that the Tuath-de-danaan settlers alone could have erected these towers, introduced the Boreadan ceremonial, and given to the country of their adoption a name taken from that of their native land. With the Scythian conquest, it became, of course, inevitable that this name (_Irin_ or _Eirin_) should be changed into _Scuitte_ or _Scotia_ (the land of the _Scythians_), and that there should have been a partial exodus of the vanquished Tuath-de-danaans--some of whom, settling in what is now Scotland, gave it the name of _Iran_ or _Eran_ (which survives in _Erne_ or _Erse_), which was afterwards changed into _Scoitte_ or _Scotia_, out of compliment to the Scythian rulers of the adjacent island, with whom its Pictish inhabitants had formed alliance.