To begin with Dodona--“In Eustathius and Steph. Byzantius,” says Vallancey, “we meet with three different conjectures in regard to the derivation of the name Dodona, which, they say, owes its origin either to a daughter of Jupiter and Europa, or one of the nymphs, the daughter of Oceanus; or, lastly, to a river in Epirus, called Dodon. But, as Mr. Potter observes, we find the Greek authors all differ, both as to the etymology of the name and the site of this oracle. In my humble opinion, Homer and Hesiod have not only agreed that it was not in Greece, but in Ireland, or some island, at least, as far westward.” The passages to which the General refers in those ancient poets are-- “Σευ ανα Δωδωναιε Πελασγικε τηλοθι ναιων Δωδωνης μεδεων δυσχειμερου.”[520] That is,-- Pelasgian Jove, who _far from Greece_ resid’st In cold Dodona. “Δωδωνην Φηγονν τε Πελασγων εδρανων ηκεν.”[521] That is,-- To Dodona he came, and the hallowed oak, the seat of the Pelasgi. Valuable as are those authorities, the General needed not to have had recourse to them at all, had he but been apprised of the origin of the word _Dodona_. One of the religious names of Ireland, which I have purposely left unexplained till now, was _Totdana_.[522] This it derived immediately from the _Tuath-de-danaans_, as indeed it did all its ancient names, with the exception of Scotia. _Tuath-de-danaans_ I have shown to mean the _Magic-God-Almoners_,[523] and _Totdana_, by consequence, must denote the _Magic-almonry_.[524] Now, the Greeks, having been initiated in all their religious mystery by the Irish, did not only enrich their language with the vocabulary of our ceremonial, but adopted the several epithets of our island as the distinctive names for their various localities, so that our _Muc-inis_[525] became their _Myc-ene_, our _Tot-dana_, their Do-dona, etc. etc. And even the names of our lakes, with all their legends of _hydras_ and _enchantments_, found their way to them also, so that from our Lough-Erne was formed, by a crasis, their L-Erna. The change from _Tot-dana_ to _Do-dona_ is much more obvious than may seem at first sight. _T_ and _D_ being commutable, _Tot_-dana was at once made _Dot_-dana; the intermediate _t_ was then left out for sound’s sake, making it Do-dana; and, lastly, the penultimate _a_ was transformed into _o_ for the “ore rotundo,”[526] completing the _Grecism_ of Do-dona. You see, therefore, from this that the origin of _Dodona_ was exclusively Irish! that _Dodona_ and _Ireland_ were, in fact, one and the same!--a circumstance of which Homer was perfectly well assured when he styled it Δωδωνη δυσχειμερος, or the _Hyperborean Tot-dana_.[527]