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

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Kcribe as the sacred Islands in the zcest, calling one of ihem
Brttashtan, or the stat and place of religious duty. — That
one of these Islands, from the earliest periods, was regarded
as the abode of the Pitris, who were fathers of the human
race. And that, in these Islands, were two places, in which
those Pitris could be seen.
That the old Hindus visited them accordingly, for this
purpose, and that even a certain Yogi, who was living when
Mr. Wilford wrote, A. D. 1791> had set out upon that very
design, with his attendant pilgrims, and had proceeded in
his journey, as far as to Moscozc.
In the same volume, that luminary of science, pubhc
spirit and virtue. Sir William Jones, — " on the lunar year
of the Hindus," — tells us, that, " On the day of the conjunc-
tion, obsequies are performed (as ofterings) to the manes of
the Pitris, or progenitors of the human race, to whom the
darker fortnight is peculiarly sacred," — just as the vight,
or dark season is consecrated, in Druidical worshij).
On these passages I would remark.
Tliat the Pitris of the west, and these honours to tlicm>
could not have sprung originally from India.
From the earliest periods, their abode had been in the
aacred Islands of the west, in which Islands, we find the
Cpnri/, who emphatically call themselves the βrst, or the
oldest race.
These Islands could not have been consecrated bi/ the
Indians. Had the mysteries of the Pitris originated wità
[find us, their sacred abode would, uncjuestionably have beea