Others of these legends, however, are undoubtedly purely artificial, and the entire legendary history of Ireland prior to the establishment of Christianity in the fifth century partakes largely of this character. It presents us with a minute detail of the colonies supposed to have preceded the settlement of the Scots, with the names and families of their leaders, the exact period, even to the day of the week, of their settlement, the duration of their occupation of the country, the succession of their kings, and the history of the extinction of the colony either by pestilence or expatriation. Then we have the reigns of 116 pagan kings of the Scots, who reigned during twenty-one centuries, given with an extraordinary minuteness and elaboration of detail, and the accompaniment of marvellous incidents, which betrays its legendary character. Ethnic and linguistic legends are of course interwoven in it, and it may contain fragments of history, such as the revolt of the _Attachtuatha_ or servile classes against their lords, and the territorial changes in the divisions of the land and the location of the tribes which took place from time to time; but the marvellous character of the events continues to the establishment of Christianity, as we see in the narrative of the reigns of three last pagan kings, the first of whom, Niall, who reigned from 379 to 405, subjected all Britain and a great part of the Continent to his sway, and received hostages from nine kingdoms, whence he was called Niall of the nine Hostages; Dathy, who was killed by a flash of lightning at the foot of the Alps in the year 428; and Laogaire, who was slain by the elements between two mountains called Erin and Alban for refusing obedience to the mission of St. Patrick. The chronology of this legendary history, too, is entirely artificial, and though some parts of the narrative may have a historic basis, the dates assigned to them are as little to be trusted as the rest of the history itself. One of the tales contained in the Book of Ballimote, by which the knowledge of this wonderful history was supposed to have been preserved to historic times, will furnish a good example of what the imagination of its framers was capable of producing, and it has an interest for us from the connection it had with the great apostle of Scotland, as that of Fintan had with the apostle of Ireland. We are there told that the entire colony of Partholon’s people were destroyed by the plague, excepting one man, Tuan the son of Starn, the son of Seara, Partholon’s brother’s son, and God metamorphosed him into various forms, so that he lived from the time of Partholon to that of Columcille, to whom he related all the information, history, and conquests of Ireland that took place from Ceasair’s time to that period, and then we have the following poem:— 1.