Note 48 — II. (continued 2)

According to a popular tradition, Ireland was, in the dawn of history, invaded by a colony of Milesians, coming from Spain, but being originally of Phoenician descent. Hence the lineal descendants of the great and old, purely Irish families, were all called Milesians, though the island was, from earliest times, inhabited by different races, of which the invaders came to form but one; cf. George Sigerson, Bards of the Gael and Gall, London 1907, p. 377.