Blair Collection > Celtic researches, on the origin, traditions & language, of the ancient Britons

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The old poets and historians, upon almost every occasion,
shew a propensity to espouse the opposite party. The poeins
of the Greeks, their poetic histories, the Eddas of the Goths,
the legends of Persia and India, the traditions of the Britons,
and even the tales of the Grcenlanders describe these giants so
much alike, that it is evident they all drew from one original,
and that their strokes ai'e copied from nature.
This remarkable concurrence of evidence, from times and
places so remote from each other, carries all the force of truth.
Universal tradition must be referred to some universal circum-
stance or event. And the traditions respeòHng the deluge are
not more uniform or more general, than those which regard
the giants. All ancient nations acknowledge their acquain-
tance with such a race. They intruded into the recesses of
their country, they lurked amongst their caves, their forests,
their rocks and their desolate places, praòtising sorcery and
diabolical arts, exercising all manner of violence, and so fierce
and savage, that it was a matter of indifference tr• them
whether they feasted upon a sheep or a man. But I know of
no nation Avhich boasts of them as its ancestors.
This is a general feature in ancient tradition, and worthy of
remark. All people claim the family that was preserved at
the deluge as their own pecidkir ancestors, and the founders
of their nation; but the giants are always detested strangers,
with whom they never chose to have anj"^ connection. Some
Greek writer indeed makes Orpheus the Thracian call them.
Η/Α£Τ£ξω»τ Qt^oyovoi ητχπρων ; but it IS probable the Thracian himself
would have been more shy of his ancestors.
The Greeks, in like manner, compliment the Celt^ with
their descent from the giants; but the Celtai themselves,
while they acknowledge that such a race dwelt amongst thejn_,