at least--was being eagerly scrambled for by the overflowing
hosts of Asia, and they were not long left in undisputed
possession of so tempting a prize. Another expedition,
claiming descent from the common ancestor, Nemedh, arrived
to contest their supremacy. These last--the _fourth_
immigration--are depicted to us as accomplished soothsayers
and necromancers who came out of Greece. They could quell
storms; cure diseases; work in metals; foretell future
events; forge magical weapons; and raise the dead to
life; they are called the _Tuatha de Danans_, and by
their supernatural power, as well as by virtue of "the
Lia Fail," or fabled "stone of destiny," they subdued
their Belgic kinsmen, and exercised sovereignty over
them, till they in turn were displaced by the Gaelic, or
_fifth_ immigration.

This fifth and final colony called themselves alternately,
or at different periods of their history, _Gael_, from
one of their remote ancestors; _Milesians_, from the
immediate projector of their emigration; or _Scoti_, from
Scota, the mother of Milesius. They came from Spain
under the leadership of the sons of Milesius, whom they
had lost during their temporary sojourn in that country.
In vain the skilful _Tuatha_ surrounded themselves and
their coveted island with magic-made tempest and terrors;
in vain they reduced it in size so as to be almost
invisible from sea; Amergin, one of the sons of Milesius,
was a Druid skilled in all the arts of the east, and led
by his wise counsels, his brothers countermined the
magicians, and beat them at their own weapons. This