The genuine history of the Britons asserted against Mr. Macpherson ...

136
THE GENUINE HISTORY OF
Vallum.—And, thus wrong in the pofition of the
Ma^ata", Mr. Macpherfon is lure to be miftaken
in his explanation of their name. And it is
neither juft in its own nature, nor right in its
application to them. It is not juft, becaufe in
the Text it equally gives two, and, dill more
llrangely, in the Note equally annexes three,
very different imports to the word ; the inhabi-
tants of the Plains ; the pofleiTors of a middle
country, or (as, to humour his Hypothcfis, he
contradidlorily calls it in the Text) a controverted
one ; and a mixed people. All three were cer-
tainly T-Ot meant by the name. And, of the
two mentioned in the Text, neither was meant
at all. This is obvious from the impropriety
of deducing Ivfeatse from Moai-atich, and the
greater impropriety of deducing it from Msanatich.
And even the derivation of it from Moi-
atich, which is the beft of them all, and had
been previoufly adopted in the Hiftory of Man-
chefter
*, appears to me now to be harfli and
forced. Hov; Mr. Macpherfon could be in-
duced to give this interpretation in the Note,
I cannot conceive ; as it plainly Hands in direft
oppofition to ihe reafonings and etymons in the
Text. And the real etymology of the name,
I believe, is this. Mag, a Plain, mufl have been
equally pronounced May and Mce originally, as
'P. 41^.