Within the few months which have elapsed since the publication of the first edition of this History and the present moment, when I am engaged in preparing a second edition, a fact has occurred within my own personal knowledge relative to this very subject, and of too great importance to the history of Ireland in the present day to be omitted. A shoal of sprats arrived in the bay of ---- and the poor people crowded to the shore to witness the arrival and, alas! the departure of the finny tribe. All their nets had been broken or sold in the famine year; they had, therefore, no means of securing what would have been a valuable addition to their poor fare. The wealthy, whose tables are furnished daily with every luxury, can have but little idea how bitter such privations are to the poor. Had there been a resident landlord in the place, to interest himself in the welfare of his tenants, a few pounds would have procured all that was necessary, and the people, always grateful for kindness, would long have remembered the boon and the bestower of it. [55] _Commerce_.--"Phoenices a vetustissimis inde temporibus frequenter crebras mercaturæ gratiâ navigationes instituerunt."--Diod. Sic. vers. Wesseling, t.i. [56] _Confessio_.--Dr. O'Donovan states, in an article in the _Ulster Archæological Journal_, vol. viii. p. 249, that he had a letter from the late Dr. Prichard, who stated that it was his belief the ancient Irish were not anthropophagi. He adds: "Whatever they may have been when their island was called _Insula Sacra_, there are no people in Europe who are more squeamish in the use of meats than the modern Irish peasantry, for they have a horror of every kind of carrion;" albeit he is obliged to confess that, though they abuse the French for eating frogs, and the English for eating rooks, there is evidence to prove that horseflesh was eaten in Ireland, even in the reign of Queen Elizabeth. CHAPTER V. Landing of the Milesians--Traditions of the Tuatha Dé Dananns in St. Patrick's time--The Lia Fail, or Stone of Destiny--The Milesians go back to sea "nine waves"--They conquer ultimately--Reign of Eremon--Landing of the Picts--Bede's Account of Ireland--Fame of its Fish and Goats--Difficulties of Irish Chronology--Importance and Authenticity of Irish Pedigrees--Qualifications of an Ollamh--Milesian Genealogies--Historical Value of Pedigrees--National Feelings should be respected--Historic Tales--Poems. [A.M. 3500.]