Page:Dictionary of Greek and Roman Geography Volume I Part 1.djvu/457

 BRTTANNICAE INSULAE. thing bat natiTe to Rome. It might bo stmngc to Italy, strange to the Italian langoage. What might thna have been the case, actuallj?ra» so. The im- perial forces which occnpied Britain, and supplied what is osnallj called the Roman element to the ori- ginal Keltic basu, were Germans, Gaols, Iberians, &C., as the case might be; rarelj pare Roman. The NotUia Utrimque Imperii, a docoment referrible to ■ome time sabeequent to the reign of Valens, — inas- nnch as it mentions the Province of ValemUoj — gives US, as elements of oar L^onary population, — 1. GermatUj «'. e. Tungricani, Tongri^ Tama- eenses, Batavi. 2. GatUt: Nervii (in three qnaiters), Morini (see lift 9oc. Gain. 3. Iberiana: Hispani. 4. iVo&a6fe£2b9om(iiu.*Dalmatae,Diaci,ThiaceB, Tfaai&lae. 5. Sjfri; and 6. Mmnri. Of these the non-Roman character is the most pa- tent; and these, at least, we may separate from the occupants of Italian blood. Of others, the foreign extraction is more uncertain. Sometimes the read- ing of the MSS. is doubtful, sometimes the term in- explicable. Thus, whilst it is difficult to say who the Solenses or Paoenses were, — opinions being dif- ferent, — the authenticity of such a text as 7W6iMttt oohorlcB primas Frixagorum Vindob<Ua is doubtful. In such a case, the assumption that it meant Fri- MCMS, and the speculaticm as to the presence of a Fruian cohort, are unsatis&ctory. The analysb of the German populations, out of which the present nationality of England has grown, •caroely belqngi to ekutical Britain. As far as it goes, however, it is to be sought under the heads AjiOLi,*FRi8n, Saxonbs. The extent to which the native population, whether exclusiyely Keltic or mixed, was uniform in manners and appearance, is chiefly to be measured by the remark of Tadtas, that the " physical ap- pearance varied;" that the *' Caledonians were red- haired, and large-limbed;" that the ** Silurians were high-ooloured and curly-haired;" and, lastly, that the natives of the parts nearest Gaul were Gkdlic in look and manner. The text in full has given rise to oonsidenble speculation. It stands thus : ** Ha- bitus corporum varii; atque ex eo argumenta. Namqae mtilae Galedoniam habitantium comae, magni artus, Germanicam originem adseverant. Si- lurum colonti vultus, et torti plentmque crines, et posita contra Hlspania, Iberos veteres tngedssc, •asque sedes oocnpaase fidem fadunt" {Agric, 11.) The words in Italics show that both the Germanic and the Iberic hypotheses were not historical &cts, bat only inferences. The only factt that Tadtas gives us is the difference of appearance in different parts of the ishind. This is undoabted. At the present moment the inhalntants of South Wales have florid complexions and dark hair; whilst the Scotch Highlanders, though of uncertain and irre- gular stature, are, on the whole, red; or, at least, sandy-haired. The inference from this is as free to the inquirer of the present century as it was to Tacitus. In respect to the opinions on this point, it is safe to say that the Germanic hypothesis is wholly, the Iberic nearly, unnecessary. The Scotch conformation is equally Keltic and Germanic : that of the South-Welsh is less easily expUined. It re-appears, however, in certain parts of England — oftener on the coal-measures than elsewhere, bat •till elsewhere. The &ot stUi requues solution. BBITANNIGAE INSULAE. Vm Lanouaob. 489 A oontinuatian of the previous extract gives us the standard text respecting the language of Britain — '* sermo baud mnltum diversus," (i, «. from that of Gaul). What does this apply to? Not necessarily to the Britons altogether — only to those nearest GauL Yet it by no means ex- cludes the others. It leaves the question open for the north and western parts of the island. The belief that the speech of Western Britain was essen- tially that of the eastern parts, rests partly upon the prindple of not multiplying causes unnecoisarily, and partly upon the present existence of the Vfdih language. The Welsh of Wales and the Bretons of Brittany, are closely allied. This, however, is valid only in the eyes of the inquirer, who admits that the present Breton represents the ancient Gallic It has no weight against the belief that it is of British origin — derived fitxn the Bretons of the southern coast, who, at the Saxon invasion, transplanted themselves and their speech to the opposite shore of Armorica. The advocate of this view requires farther evidence. Nor is it wanting. It has heea shown more than once — by no one better than the late Mr. Gamett in the TransacticDs of the Philoeophical Sodety — that the old Gallic glosses are not only significant in the Keltic language of western and northern Britain, but that they are most so in the Welsh or Briti^ branch of it Contrary to the criticism of the time of Tadtos, it is the British language which now illustrates that of Gaul, and not the Gallic which explains the British. The proper British glosses are few. Two of them, how- ever, are still existent with the ishmd. Kovpfu (Dioscorid. Jfot. Med. ii. 110), as the name of the British beverage, is the Welsh ctorrwsss eeremaia es beer; and iyiurirtuos, the British spedes of hound, is the present word jKies-hound (Oppian, CynegeL L471.) The geographical terms in the ancient British are numerous; and one class of them illustrates a deflection from the Gallic form of speech. In Gaul the compounds of the root dvr- invariably take that combination as an c^ (e.^. Maroo-^^timm) : in Britain it is as invariably a i^rs-fix (e. g, ihtro^ vernum). IX. ANTIQUITXESb These fall into two clear and definite dasses: 1. the Proper Britbh; 2. the Roman. A third — the German — is less certain. A fourth is possible; but, in the opinion of the present writer, unneces- sary. The last two will be considered first In such sepulchral m<mnments as bear the marks of the greatest antiquity, the implements and om»- ments are of stone, to tiie exclusion of metal. The skulls, also, are of a small average magnitude, with certun peculiarities of shape. The inference that has been drawn from this is, that the population who worked without metals was of a different stock from those that used them. Again, the doctrine suggested by Amdt, expanded by Rask, and admitted in its very fullest extent by the Scandinavian school of philologists, ethnologists, and antiquarians, and which is luiown as the " Finn hypothesis," goes the same way. This means that, before the spread at the populations speaking the languages called Indo- European— before the spread of the Slavonians, Germans, Kelts, and Brahminic Hindus — 'Sn earlier I population extended from Cape Comorin to LapUnd, f4