74 CRANIA BEITANNICA. [CHAP. V.
CHAP. V. ] HISTORICAL ETHNOLOGY OF BRITAIN. 75
workmen were brought over for tlie erection of the small oratories and churches of stone, which
gradually superseded those of planks and wattles*.
The houses of the Britons required but little furniture, it being the habit of the Celtic
tribes to sleep on the groimd, on the skins of dogs, wolves and other wUd beasts; or on beds of
straw, covered with saga or mantles, probably the same which they wore by day. The same
skins and mattresses seem to have been used as seats at their meals; which, in Gaul, were served
on wooden tables, raised but Kttle above the groundf. At dinner or supper, many would sit, or
rather squat on the ground, in a circle, surrounded by their dependents and foUowers, the spearmen
forming a separate cii-cle, but all eating with there chiefs. The food consisted of a Uttle
bread and a great deal of flesh-meat, either boiled or roasted on the embers, or on spits, the fires
for which were hghted hard by. It was brought to table ia brass vessels, or iu baskets of wickerwork,
for the manufacture of which the Britons were celebrated, and similar probably to thefe^i
used to this day in the cabins of Ireland. Little pains were taken in the preparation or division
of the food; and Posidonius, describing particularly the customs of the people in the South of
Gaul, asserts that, like beasts of prey, they took up whole joints, biting off portions, and if any
part were too difficult to be torn off by the teeth, they out it off with a smaU knife which,
sheathed in a case, lay beside themj. The state of the teeth in ancient British skulls, curiously
confirms this description, which was probably equaHy true of this country, and would of itself
indicate that the habits of the Britons as to theic food approximated much more to those of
carnivorous than to those of herbivorous ajiimals§. Even in later times, very little bread was
eaten; and Diodorus tells us that the Britons selected the riper ears from their subterranean
repositories of corn, and prepared them daily as they were wanted |1; from which it may be
inferred that the corn was ground with a hand-miU or quern, and the flour made into cakes and
baked in primitive fashion on the heaxth. An incident in the life of St. Cokmiba shows that in
Ireland and North Britain, at the beginning of the sixth century, the corn was stiH ground in the
quern, day by day as it was requiredT. Rude flat querns, consisting of two stones with a hole
in the centre of the upper one, through which the com was poured, are frequently found in
Scotland, and especiaUy in the weems and Picts-hoiises, and are doubtless many of them to be
* One of the earliest of these primitiTe stone churches was
that erected, about 410 A.D., by St. Nmian, at Witheme iu
Galloway, hence called Candida Casa, of which Bede (lib. iii.
c. 4) observes, " quod ibi ecclesiam de lapide, insolito Brittonibus
more fecerit." The churches of North Britain and
of England were often of wood and reeds, until a much later
period, as that of Lindisfame, built by Fiuan about 652 A.D., of
which Bede (lib. iii. c. 25) says, " more Scottorum, non de
lapide, sed de robore secto totam composuit, atque harundine
texit." (See also, under 710 A.D,, lib. v. c. 21.)
t Strabo, lib. iv. c. 4. § 3 ; hb. iii. c. 3. § 7 ; lib. iii. c. 4.
5 16. Diodorus, lib. T. c. 28, 32. Posidonius a;). Athen. Ub. iv.
p. 152. Polybins, lib. ii. c. 17. The custom of sitting at meals
on the ground, with the legs bent beneath them, or on low stools
or mats, with the food on a very low table, existed among the
ancient Egyptians (Kenrick, "Ancient Egypt," 1850, vol. i.
p. 236), and is still common in the East. Even when drawn
up in order of battle, the Gauls used to sit or rather squat on
bundles of straw and sticks. Cffisar, B.G. lib. viii. c. 15.
J Posidonius, loc. cii.
§ See particular descriptions, in this wort, of the teeth in
various ancient British skulls, particularly in that from the
chambered tumulus at Dley. The injury to the teeth resulting
from the habits above referred to, must the more easily
have occurred, if the practice common among Celtic tribes, of
washing them with a certain animal fluid, prevailed m Britam.
These singular and disgusting ablutions, under the pretence of
health, were extended to the entire body, by the Ganls and
other Celts. " Urina enim totum corpus perluunt, adeoque
dentes etiam fricant." Diodorus, lib. v. c. 33. Strabo, lib. iii.
c. 4. § 16. Catullus, xxxv. v. 20; xxxvii. v. 17.
II Diodorus, lib. v. c. 21.
Smith, " Life of St. Columba," p. 60. The saint in his
youth took his turn at the hand-mill, and was thought to have
miraculous assistance, in consequence of the rapidity with
which the task was performed, on the nights when it fell to liis
share to grind.
assigned to a very early period*. The drinking vessels commonly used by the Celts of Gaul and
Spain are expressly said to have been of woodf. Such have been found in British tumuli, and
the qtiaich of the Scotch Highlanders and the metJier of the Irish may be accepted as representatives
of this ancient form of di-inking vessel. That vessels of earthenware were in use
for the same purpose is clear from what Posidonius relates of the Gallic feasts, and from the
many examples exhumed from barrows of the British period. Many of these are of not
inelegant form and ornamentation, and hold a quart or upwards J.
CLOTHING, PERSONAL DECORATIONS, ORNAMENTS.
The Britons wore the hair of the head long, and were distinguished by the moustache on the
upper lip, but shaved the rest of the body. This statement of Csesar, as to the practice of
shaving, must be understood, principally, if not entirely, of the higher and mUitary class. What
Diodorus, in this respect, says of the Gauls, is in the nature of things probable, and serves to
complete the picture left us by Csesar. Some, says he, wear no beard, others wear it moderately
long, but the chiefs shave their cheeks, retaining only a large moustache on the upper lip. The
long locks and moustache of a Gaulish hero, on the obverse of the as of Ariminium, correspond
exactly with the description of Cassar and Diodorus. The Gauls added to the prevalent red
colour of their hair by the use of an alkaline ley or soap; which last substance, Pliny teUs us,
was an invention by them for this very purpose. The Celtic peculiarity of long thick hair
(whence the name of Gallia Comata) was long retained by the northern and western tribes
of Britain. Gildas ascribes it to the Picts and Scots of the fifth century; and the "gKb"
of long matted hair was worn by the native Irish down to a very late period §. They all dyed
their bodies with woad 1|, thus giving themselves a more terrible appearance in battle, and that
blueish or greenish colom-, which afforded so many characteristic epithets to the Latin poets.
But the term picti is used by the Roman writers, at least in later times, of the figures produced
by tattooing, as well as by staining the skin. To a late period, the more remote and barbarous
* Pennant, "Tour in Scotland," 1769, p. 231 ; 1772, p.
328. Wilson, "Prehistoric Annals," p. 150. Archajological
Journal, 1853, vol. x. p. 219. The use of these primitive
hand-mills was continued in the remote parts of North Britain,
down to the close of the last century, in spite of legislative
enactments against their use, and in favour of the water-mills
mtroduced there in the thirteenth century.
t Strabo, hb. iii. c. 3. § 7. That this statement of Strabo
applies to Britain as well as Gaul and Spain, appears from the
discovery in a British tumulus, at Stowhorough iu Dorsetshire,
of a small wooden cup, which was curiously ornamented
with hatchings, similar to those on British pottery. (Hutchins,
" Dorsetshire," vol. i. p. 38. Camden, Britannia, vol. i.
p. 70.)
J See various examples m Hoare's "Ancient Wiltshire,"and
in other collections of British antiquities. Such drinking cups
are seen m the right hand, m two curious bronze figures found
at Lyons, which clearly represent the costume of two ancient
Gauls, llich, p. 117.
5 Caisar, B. G. lib.v.c. 14. Diodorus, lib. v. c. 28. Pliny,
lib. xxviii. § 51. The profusion of hair allowed to luxuriate
in its natural growth, is also well shown in the representation
of the heads of Gauls, on a sarcophagus, found at the Villa
Amendola in the year 1830. " Illustrated Dictionary," by
Kich, 1849, p. 193. See also Pliny, hb. iv. § 31. Lucan,
lib. i. V. 443. Gildas, Hist. § 15, quoted below, p. 76.
II Cajsar, B. G. ib. This plant, the Isatis tinctoria, called
vitrum iu the Latin, by Csesar and Mela (lib. iii. c. 6), Pliny
(lib. xxii. § 2) tells us had the native name oiglastuvi. The
Welsh name of the plant is ylashjs. It is probable that the
name of vitrum was applied by Ciesar to the glaslys of the Britons
by mistake. The word is evidently derived from the British
glas, blue. In the ancient as in modern Teutonic languages,
a similar word, glas, glees, gles, had the same signiiicatiou
as our English word glass, the vitrum of the Romans.
The ancient Germans, doubtless from its transparency and
glass-like appearance, gave the same name to amber {ylessum,
Glessaria, Pliny, lib. xxxvii. c. 3 ; iv. § 27, 30; glesum, Tacitus,
Germ. c. 45). Csesar was probably familiar with the
word, as used both by the Celts and by the Germans, but
failed to discriminate its diverse signification in the two languages,
and hence the mistake.