Page:Folk-lore - A Quarterly Review. Volume 11, 1900.djvu/420

 400 Reviews.

of agricultural institutions in discriminating the various strata of law and custom to be noted in Wales. Chapter VI., the Ancient Laws and Customs of Wales, gives a sound and scholarly survey of the subject ; but it suffers from failure to use the comparative method, and it advances our knowledge of the real nature of these laws and their relation to Aryan Custom in general, less than might reasonably have been expected. The most novel and suggestive point made is that which regards Howel's laws as part of a general codifying movement initiated by the legislation of Charlemagne. It is noted that the organisation of the Welsh royal household resembles that created by Charlemagne, itself, in all likelihood, more or less based on that of the Byzantine Court.

The most disappointing chapter from our point of view is that on Language and Literature. The many problems involved in the mythico-romantic literature of Mediaeval Wales are passed over in complete silence, nor is much light thrown upon the origin and history of such a characteristic Welsh institution as the Eisteddfod.

That portion of the book, however, to which folklore students will turn most eagerly deals with the Ancient Ethnology of Wales. It has all the charm and fascination of Principal Rhys' work, the wide knowledge, the suggestive insight, the reconstructive daring we know so well.

All the more is it to be regretted that the author so frequently leaves us in doubt as to which of the alternative hypotheses he provides is really favoured by him. Briefly speaking, his position is as follows. The Celtic (Aryan) element is twofold : {a) Goidelic, resulting from a Celtic invasion of the British Isles which took place probably in the 6th century B.C., and which imposed in part its speech and customs upon the non-Aryan aborigines ; {b) Brythonic, resulting from a Celtic invasion of the 4th — 2nd centuries. The Brythons drove the Goidels westwards, forcing the majority into Ireland, but the north and south of Wales remained predominantly Goidelic down to the 6th century of our era, shortly before which time the Brythonic element was reinforced from the north by the invasion of Cunedda and his sons, who definitely Brythonised present Wales and estab- lished the polity which lasted until the Anglo-Norman conquest of the 13th century. Both varieties of Celtic speech have been strongly influenced by the aboriginal non-Aryan language, this influence being of course strongest in the case of the Goidels