108 CRANIA BEITANNICA. [CHAP. V.
probably similar to those used in Gaul in the time of Posidonius. 3. Diminiitive vases, of
variable form, sometimes perforated at the bottom, but more often at the sides; or fm-nished with
loops by which they might be suspended. These last, as Mr. Birch suggests, may have been
used as lamps in the British huts*. They are often compared to salt-ceUars, and are all
generally known as tlmribula, or Incense-Cups, a name given them by Sii- E. 0. Hoare, who
believed them to have been used when cremation was practised. This description applies to
the sepulchral yjcifi^ia of South Britiiin, where the rude native art was doubtless superseded in
the fii-st centm-y, by better processes from Rome. That of the Pictish and Gaelic ai-eas of the
British Isles displays much greater variety of form and profusion of ornament f.
NAVIGATION, TRADE, AND COINAGE.
The most ancient notices of Britain concur in representing the native navigation of its seas,
as being in light skiffs of wicker-work covered with hides, or in coracles,—ctpno^, corwgl,
Cymric,—c2irac/i, Gaelic. Pestus Avienus describes them as seen by HimUco the Carthaginian,
as early probably as the Ifth centui-y B.C. " They furrow the ocean," says the poet, " in a
strange kind of boat ; . . . for, wonderful to tell, they equip theii- vessels with skins joined together,
and often traverse the salt sea in a hide of leather f Timseus, who probably derived his
information from the voyage of Pytheas, refers to the coracles of Britain about three centuries
B.C. § Both these accoimts refer to the sotith-west of the island and to the Cassiterides : Csesar,
liowever, found the coracle equally in the south-east. Prom his accoimt it would appear that thè
keel and ribs were of light timber, the rest being woven with osiers, and the whole covered with
hides.II PKny is express as to the use of the coracle in the British Ocean in his times; and
Solinus, wiiting probably in the third century, describes the boats of wicker covered with oxhides
in which the stormy sea between Britain and Ireland was navigated Prom Gildas we
learn the use of coracles by the Scots and Picts of the fifth centui-y**. The most particular
accounts of them are in the Lives of the Irish Saints of this and the next century. In that
of St. Patrick, mention is made of a small boat of a single skin, such as would hold three men
sitting close together f t - They were often, however, of much larger size ; and that in which three
pilgrims crossed the sea from Ireland to Cornwall, in the reign of Alfred, when such use of the
coracle had probably become rare, was of two ox-hides and a halfJi. They were usually
propelled by oars or paddles ; but, as the Xdfe of St. Columba shows, those of larger size were
then at least fui-nished with masts, sails, cross-yards and cables, and even with a deck and
regular prow and poop § §. The use of the coracle, after a known duration of between twenty and
* Birch, "Ancient Pottery," 1858, Celtic Pottery, vol. ii.
part 5.
t Numerous representations of the Tarious forms of British
fictiliawill be found in the Descriptions of Skulls in this work.
The whole subject deserves more careful study than it has yet
obtained.
t 01. Marit. V. 101 et seq.
§ Pliny, lib. iv. § 30.
II B. C. lib. i. c. 54. Lucau, lib. iv. v. 131.
^ Pliny, lib. vii. § 57. Solinus, c. 22.
** De Excid. Brit. § 15.
t t Vit. Tripart, iii. 61. Comp. Vit. S. Niniau., c. 10.
tt Saxon Chronicle, Ethelwerd and Florence ; subam.A.a.
891.
§§ Vit. S. Columb. auct. Adamnan, lib. ii. c. 42, ns. In
the notes to the edition of 1857, Dr. Keeves supplies much information
on the construction of coracles. In the Life of St.
Brendan, a contemporary of Columba, is a circumstantial account
of the building of one in the district of Kerry, from
which it appears that the hides were tanned with oak bark, and
afterwards prepared with butter. A fleet of twelve coracles—
"navalis emigratio"—laden with timber for the monastery of
Iona, conveyed Columba and his disciples thither in 563. The
sahit's own coracle, as tradition asserts, was sixty feet in lengtli.
CHAP. V.] HISTORICAL ETHNOLOGY OF BRITAIN. 109
thirty centuries, still survives on many parts of the coast of Ireland, especiaUy in Donegal and
Clare, in the Hebrides, and on the Wye and other rivers of Wales and Monmouthshire*.
Though more particularly affected by the Britons, this sort of vessel was not confined to them.
The boats with which the Saxon pirates ravaged the British seas in the fourth century were of
wicker, covered, as Isidoras states, with raw hides+. The Ligurian pirates also used coracles Í.
Strabo says, that about the close of the second century before our era, the coracle in the
lagoons of the south of Spain was partiaUy superseded by boats formed out of the single trunks
of trees. The river boats on the Bsetis, in the adjoining territory of the Turdetani, were of this
last description, but in Strabo's time had given place to those of joined planks §. We have
here perhaps a record of the natural order of nautical invention; though we cannot assume that
in aU instances the coracle preceded the monoxylic boat or canoe; and the contrary seems
to have been the ease with some German tribes. This last, as Livy's account of the Second
Punic War shows, was in use by the Transalpine Gauls two centuries B.C. || Though
historical proof is wanting, the use of such canoes by the Britons in very early times is
proved by numerous discoveries. Primitive vessels, similar to those of various existing
uncivilized tribes, hollowed out of the single trunks of oaks, are often found in peat-bogs, or
near the banks of rivers, buried many feet beneath the accumulated alluvium. They are of
various sizes, from seven or eight to thirty or thirty-five feet in length, like one from the banks
of the Carrón, found in 1726, and another near the Arun, in Sussex, in 1834. With the smaller
canoes are sometimes found the remains of paddles which had been attached to one end, with
wooden pegs. Some show traces of having been excavated by fire, others by stone adzes and
hatchets, which in a few cases were found near them1[. The circnmstances of their discovery
justify the conclusion that these boats were intended for the navigation of rivers, or at the most
of lakes and estuaries.
* See description of a modern coracle in the Account of Tory
Island, by Ed. Getty, Esq. Ulster Journal of Archeology,
vol. i. p. 32.
t Sidon. Apoll. Pan. Avit. v. 369, quoted by Gibbon, chap.
25. Isidor. Hisp. lib. six. c. 1. 21. As bearing on the probability
of communication between Britain and Scandinavia and
Germany, in pre-historic times, the slight advances in navigation
made by the people of the last-named countries before they
were familiarized with the Roman galleys, should be observed.
Pliny (lib. xvi. § 76) says that the German pirates used boats
hollowed out from single trees, some of which held thirty men.
Tacitus (Ann. Ub. xi. c. 18) alludes to the slight river-boats,
lintrcs, of the Chauci, with which Gannascus ravaged the
Rhine, A.D. 47. The only mention, by the same historian, in
his Manners of the Germans, of shipping, is that of the Suiones,
the ancestors of the Swedes, who, seven centuries later, in common
with the Danes and Norsemen, became so formidable a
naval power. At the close of the first century, their vessels,
of which they had already many, were very rude ; being without
sails or fixed places at the sides for the oars, which were
used as the convenience of the rowers dictated ; they had a
prow at each end, so that they could make head either way,—a
peculiarity which fitted them for the rocky fiords of the Scandinavian
coast. Dr. Leo of Halle has pointed out that all the
words in the Teutonic languages which refer to nautical affairs
arc of Celtic derivation,—strong proof that the Celts preceded
the Germans in the knowledge of navigation. Gent. Mag.
1857, vol. ii. p. 317.
+ Diodorus, lib. v. c. 39.
§ Strabo, lib. iii. c. 2. § 3,—Turdetani; c. 3. § 7, Bastetani.
Virgil (Mn. vi. v. 414, " Gemuit sub pondere cymba
Sutihs") describes Charon's boat as a coracle, probably from
its supposed primeval character.
II Livy, lib. xxi. c. 26 ; " lintres cavare."
^ Such boats have been found in the marshes of the Medway,
Kent; in the levels of the Ouse and near the Arun, Sussex
; near the Test, Hampshire ; in the turbaries of the Brue,
Somerset; in the Feus of Lincolnshh:e ; in the bed of the
Calder, and in Holderness, Yorkshire; in Martin Meer, Lancashire
i several in the Clyde at Glasgow ; in Locker Moss,
Dumfriesshire; in Loch Doon, Ayrshire; near the Carrón,
Stirhngshire ; in the Loch of Kiunordy, Forfarshire ; in the
Boyiie, the Brosna, the Bann, near Lough Fea, and in other
places in Ireland. Archaiologia, vol. xix. p. 103 ; vol. xxvi.
p. 257. Arehojological Journal, vol. iii. p. 94 ; vol. vii. p. 346 ;
vol. viii. p. 113. Hoare, "Ancient Wilts," vol. i. p. 204. Proceedings
of the Somerset Archaeological Society, 1850, vol. i,
p. 52. Lyell, "Principles of Geology," p. 759. Chalmers,
"Caledonia," vol. i. p. 101. Account of Museum of Yorkshire
Philosophical Society, p. 72. Phillips, " Rivers, Mountains,"
&c. p. 122. Wilde, "Catalogue of Antiquities of the
Royal Irish Academy," p. 202.
Q