And if he does believe this, why should he not believe another history, of which there has been truthful preservation, like the history of Erinn?
I say truthful preservation, for it is not only that they [the preservers of it] were very numerous, as we said, preserving the same, but there was an order and a law with them and upon them, out of which they could not, without great injury, tell lies or falsehoods, as may be seen in the Books of _Fenechas_ [Law], of _Fodhla_ [Erinn], and in the degrees of the poets themselves, their order, and their laws."[23] [Illustration: BEREHAVEN] FOOTNOTES: [15] _Erinn_ .-- O'Curry, page 57.

It has also been remarked, that there is no nation in possession of such ancient chronicles written in what is still the language of its people.
[16] _Years_ .-- See O'Curry, _passim_.
[17] _Erinn_ .-- _Eire_ is the correct form for the nominative.

Erinn is the genitive, but too long in use to admit of alteration.

The ordinary name of Ireland, in the oldest Irish MSS., is (h)Erin, gen.

(h)Erenn, dat.