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Grey River Argus, Issue 69, 21 June 1866, Page 3

The Fenians,— The Times publishes the following letter to the • editor :— Sir,— You ask for information of the "word" or "term" " Finian." In Weight's History of Ireland, pp. 9 and 10, you will find what you sij ifiuch desire, viz. : — " After the flood the, population of- the world assembled to raise -the tower oflkkel was separated into severity -two people speaking so many differ-; entr languages. Gomer's grandson, Feniusa, Farsa, or JPlienius, King of the ScythianSj was anxious to make himself acquainted with all the seventy-two languages? "With this object he sent out seventy-two learned men "to reside seven years among the seventytwo different people who spoke them, and on their return he left his kingdom, having placed his son Nenuall on the throne, as regent, during his absence, and proceeded with these learned men to the plain of Shanaai*, the scene of the dispersal, where this learned monarch founded^ school of languages. To this Phenius annalists ascribe the invention of vie Ogam characters, or ancient Irish alphabet, and they tell us that in this college on the ]jlain of Shanaar was cultivated the purest dialect of the Irish language, called the Bearli Feini. Phenius commanded Gadel, the son of Eathur, to digest the Irish language into form and regulation, and to divide it into five several dialects. The first was the Finian dialect, v spoken by the militia and soldiery ; the second the poetical ; the third the historical ; the fourth the dialect ofcthe physicians ; and the fifth the common idiom, or vulgar Irish used in general by the people, which, after the name- of Gadel, the president, was named 'Gavid healg.'" Any further explanation would spoil the subject. Your obedient, servant, Ge<\ Ballentine,