Page:Essays ethnological and linguistic.djvu/28

16 same nation as the Cymry, which conclusion has been also come to by Thierry and other principal writers of France, though from other considerations. Our next task is to argue that the southern part of Gaul, or Aquitania, was inhabited by a Gaelic people.

It has already been stated, that though the Cymric and Gaelic languages, judging from their vocabularies merely, were kindred languages, yet in their essential particulars, as in their structure and framework, they are very different. At the same time, I reserved to myself the occasion for an important observation on this point, and it is this: though the Cymric and Gaelic languages are so entirely different in such essential particulars, — as between the idioms of Wales on the one hand, and those of Scotland and Ireland on the other, — yet the Breton of the present day is an intermediate one between them, and has many of its inflexions similar to the Gaelic. This is a very suggestive fact in the history of the language, and is such a one as serves well to explain the history of a people, where written records fail us. It has been already pointed out by Professor Duncan Forbes, in his interesting letters on the subject, first addressed to the 'Gentleman's Magazine,' though the cause is still left unexplained how this affinity should exist, after so many centuries have passed since any communication between the several countries could have possibly been had.

The modern Welsh have written records of acknowledged antiquity; and their Triads certainly seem to me entitled to credit. They are consistent with probability, and are free from all those extravagances which are the usual concomitants of fiction. They state expressly, that "the Cymri first settled in this island, and that before them no persons lived therein; but it was full of bears, wolves and bisons." They state, also, that "they consisted of three tribes, the Cymri, the Lloegrians, and the Brython, who were all of the same primitive race, and were of one language." — Williams's 'Ecclesiastical Antiquities of the Cymri,' p. 7. We learn further, from the same authority, that "the first came with Hu Gadarn (the mighty), because he would not possess a country and lands by fighting and persecution, but justly and in peace;" which seems to acknowledge, that he had been driven out of some former possession, and sought an uninhabited country for refuge. With these statements, so consistent with probability in themselves, we find all other authorities to concur. Tacitus says, "In universum tamen æstimanti Gallos vicinum solum occupasse credibile est; eorum sacra deprehendas, superstitionum persuasione; sermo