Page:Essays ethnological and linguistic.djvu/52

40 Taking then as an acknowledged fact that there was a Gaelic people living in the West of England previous to the Cymri, the next question arises where did they come from? Here then we must first again have recourse to history. Believing the Welsh Triads to be correct in their assertion that the Cymri first came to the East of the island and found it uninhabited, we may judge it not improbable that the Gael first came to the West of the island from a more Southern direction and also found it uninhabited, at the same time that other bands of them went over to and colonized Ireland. Our argument will admit of the supposition that the Gael first might have settled at least principally in Ireland, whence all tradition shows that Scotland was peopled, and perhaps all the West of England originally.

Cæsar in his tripartite division of Gaul says the people of Aquitaine differed from the other Gauls in language, institutions and laws, further that they were skilful miners, which of course implies the working in metals. Strabo says the Aquitani resembled the Iberi or people of Spain more than they did the other Gauls both in language and appearance (lib. iv. § 1, 2). Tacitus says the Silures or inhabitants of Wales in his time resembled the people of Spain, whence he judged they were of Spanish origin. Vit. Ag. § 11. If we look at the map and suppose any body of people emigrating from Spain voluntarily or compulsorily, we may observe that they would most probably even if it were left to chance strike on the South-western shores of England or the South-eastern shores of Ireland. Thus judging from probability, we might expect that population would have proceeded from that direction, though it is incumbent on us to show from other considerations that we have weightier authorities for our decision than a mere balance of probabilities.

That the Irish Gael came originally from Spain is a fact substantiated by history as well as by tradition, and now may be further proved by those reasonings which Ethnology teaches us to have recourse to in investigating the origin of nations. Not only do the Irish histories and traditions assert this fact, but the Spanish also, and still more the earliest English for Nennius one of the earliest English writers distinctly states it § 13. If then the Irish came from Spain, and if there was formerly a people in the West of England speaking the same language, and bearing every evidence of being of the same origin, then we must conclude with Tacitus that they came from Spain also. Now those people in the West of England are first known to us as bearing a name somewhat equivalent to Silii or Siculi, and from them