Page:Archaeological Journal, Volume 3.djvu/52

38 this kind of brooch or buckle. Like the torques, they are not found in the primeval barrows, and are the decorations of a people more refined than the simple tribes, whose flint weapons and amber beads are discovered in the barrows. The corslet found at Mold, in Flintshire, and the remains of the northern hordes before the introduction of Christianity, bear much resemblance to them. At the same time they do not manifest any trace of Roman or Scandinavian art; and from the localities where they have been found, under the upright puldan or supposed Druids' altars, are contemporaneous with the solid maniakæ or collars.

The excellency of workmanship, allied with the total absence of art, cannot fail to strike the mind of the enquirer who investigates this most important and distinctive ornament of the Celtic and Teutonic races. A few concentric or zig-zag lines, or hatched marks, constitute all the varieties of decoration; nor is there any example of the adaptation of animal forms which distinguishes the ornamental design of the Greek and Roman races. The torcs of the Celts are evidently productions of a rude, simple, and unartistic people, and are evidence of their intellectual inferiority to the other great nations of antiquity. Reserving for another occasion, when I treat on the armilla and fibula of the Celts, the question whether the torcs were circulated as money, I shall conclude by remarking that they formed the most esteemed ornaments, and along with armlets, bracelets, and shoe-rings, completed the personal attire of the warrior, and with a few beads of glass or amber, the embellishment of the female; they were much employed for presents, and are mentioned by Strabo as one of the principal exports into Britain from Gaul, which then, as now, was the emporium of fashion.