Page:Origin of the Anglo-Saxon Race.djvu/334

320 There is evidence of the survival in Northumbria of people of Celtic descent, who were subsequently absorbed among the English race of the northern counties. The historical information on this point concerning Cartmel has been mentioned. The probability of a mixture of Celts among the Scandinavian settlers of Cumberland is also great. The Northumbrian Priest-law, which mentions the penalty for the practise of heathen rites by a King’s thane, affords evidence of the survival of people in Yorkshire of British descent, who were known as Wallerwente. Heathenism in some of its rites survived long in the North. A thane who was accused of heathen practices was fined according to the Priest-law ten half-marks, unless he could prove his innocence by thirty oath-helpers, ten of whom must be named by himself, ten by his kindred, and ten others must be Wallerwente. These Wallerwente, as their oaths were taken in evidence, must have been freemen. They were apparently men of another race, and chosen for this legal process on that account, as native Celtic inhabitants living among others of Teutonic descent, and whose testimony as native Christians would be specially acceptable in such cases. This recognition of descendants of a remnant of the old Celtic people is of interest, seeing that the oldest name for what is now Yorkshire—viz., Deira—is Welsh, and derived from its Celtic inhabitants, the Deiri, or their country.

It is well known that two very remote successive immigrations of Celtic people into Britain can be traced—viz., those of the Round Barrow period, who are also known as the men of the Bronze Age; and the later Brythons, from whom in the main the Welsh are descended. From the examination of the bones of the men of the Bronze Age, which are met with but sparingly—for cremation was their common mode of disposing of the dead—they are known to have been a broad-headed and