Blair Collection > History of the Celtic language

CELTIC LANGUAGE. 131
CHAPTER V.
eSf 01 rpovot yap ofi,ovoZff ouf oi vo/^oi
rifiuv, ccTT aXXnXtav oi oti^ouo'iv tToXv.
Bai/v T^ofxtinT;' lyii Ti (vca ro7$ 6io7s'
T?v 'iyx^Xvv fiiyirrov hyu ^ai/iova,
rifitTs Ss rSv o-^uiy fiiyiffTov fraga ffaXu.
ovK iffl'tiis una, lya §£ y tj^nfiai
fiakiffTa, Tovrm;' Kvvee. ff'tSii;, ri'Ttrot S* tyot,
irov-^01 xa,ri(t6iovaa,i hnx a-i XdSai.
TBV; I'.^icc; Iv^aii f^h oXokXyi^ov; vifio;
uvai' "Xa^ ifuv 3', aig i'oiKiv, aTtri^yfiUavs'
ffv fiisi riv cuXov^ov Kaxov i^'ovr, ri\i rj'Sris,
KXani;' tyii S'jjSdrT* ocjroKruvas %i^u'
^vvarai srusg' vfiTv fivyaXn, ?rag* \fJi,o) Ss y ev."
The following is a Translation.
" 'Tis plain that you and I can ne'er agree.
So opposite are all our ways and rites.
Before a bull, four-legged beast, ye bend.
With pious terror smitten : at the altar,
I offer him a victim to the goo's.
You fancy in the little eel some power
Of daemon huge and terrible, within ; ^
We stew it for our daintiest appetite. The flesh
Of fatted swine you touch not : 'tis the best
Of all our delicate meats. The yelpingcur
Is in your creed a god : I whip the rogue
Whene'er I catch him stealing eggs or meat.
Our priests are whole in skin from foot to head ;
Not so your circumcised and shaven seers.
You cry and wail whene'er ye spy a cat
Starving or sick : I count it not a sin
To hang it up, and flay it for its skin.
Ye say the paltry shrew-mouse is a god."
Anaxand. in Civitat. apud Aihentsi Deipnos, lib. vii. p. 2B0.