Page:Early Man in Britain and His Place in the Tertiary Period.djvu/357

] the geographical relations of the two peoples, is supported by an appeal to their physical characters.

Just as the Iberian element in the French population finds its centre in the Aquitania of Augustus, so is Belgic Gaul the headquarters of the tall, fair-haired element, considered by Dr. Broca and M. William Edwards, the representatives of the ancient Belgæ, whom they identify with the Kymri or Cimbri. It may more probably be referred to the repeated invasions of the north-eastern provinces by tall Germanic peoples, by whom the Belgæ were driven westward, and into the central and southern parts of France. The intermediate zone of Celtic Gaul is occupied partly by fair tall peoples, who may be of Celtic, Belgic, or Teutonic ancestry, but principally by a gray-eyed, brown-haired race, of moderate stature, the natural result of the fusion between the tall fair and the small dark races. This is considered by Dr. Broca to be the result of the union of the Celt with the Iberian, and to constitute the Celtæ of Cæsar as distinguished from the Belgæ.

The physical differences which are evident, when we compare the ancient Celt known to the Greeks and Romans with the present inhabitants of Celtic Gaul, may be explained by the consideration that the hordes who invaded ancient Greece and Italy were on the move, and therefore of comparatively pure race, while the modern Celt is the result of the conquerors dwelling side by side with the conquered, in the same country, for an unknown number of centuries. The use of the terms proves that this fusion of races was going on in the earliest times recorded in Spanish or Gaulish history. Plutarch, in