Il
i li'!'
liC
I I I R : : :
142 CRANIA BRITANNICA. [ C H A P . V.
those commemorated are Irish, with Latin terminations. The Ogham letters are named after
trees or plants, and the whole alphabet is called Beth-luis^im, from its first two and fifth
letters, h, betli, hireh; 1, luis, mountain-ash ; n, nin, ash. In the Eunic alphabets, both Scandinavian
and Anglo-Saxon, the letter b is named bjdrh, beorc, bii-ch ; and a few other letters are
named after trees *. In this particular, as in the form and arrangement of the letters, the
Ogham appears to be a more systematized Eimic alphabet. There can be little doubt that it
was an invention of the early monkish period, at a time when the Irish had become acquainted
with both Anglo-Saxon and Scandinavian Runes. Out of Ireland, Ogham lapidary inscriptions
have been found in Scotland, the Shetlands t , Wales, and Devonshh-e. One in Devon, and two
or three in Wales, have inscriptions both in Ogham and Roman letters. One of the Pembrokeshire
inscriptions, SAGRANI M M OTJNOTAMI, is in part bUmgual, being represented in Oghams by
Sagrani Maqi Gunatami, in which the Irish Mac is the equivalent of the Latin PIM t- This
has been called the Rosetta stone of Oghams: it a f f o r d s a valuable confirmation of the acciu-acy
of the key to the Ogham alphabet, in the book of Ballymote§.
5. CONCLUSIONS.
The most ancient traditions as to the origin of the people of Britain may be classed under
tteee heads.—1, Those which represent them as, iii part at least, indigenous; 2, those which refer
them directly or indn-ectly to certain eastern peoples, as those of Troy or Phoenicia; and 3, those
which bring them from the opposite coasts of Gaul. The indigenous origin claimed for the Britons
of the mterior is noticed by Ciesar|l, from whom and Ammianust, we learn that a lilve claim was
made for a part of the Gaiils, by the Druids, who seem not merely to have imphed that they
were descended from the first occupants, but that they were KteraUy earth-born, or autochthonic
descendants of Dis, the god of the subterranean world**. The Druids added that another portion
of the Gauls were from the outermost islands, meaning probably those of Britain, and from the
countries beyond the Rhine, whence they were di-iven by frequent wars, and by inundations of
the ocean. These last seem evidently the Cimbri, who notwithstandmg the doubt of Posidonius
and Strabott, may reaUy have been di-iven from their former seats by inundations, such as have
* P A. Munch, " Nordiske Buueskrift," 1848. Kemble, § Another bilingnal, or at least biliteral stone is at Newton
"Anglo-Saxon Runes. " Archffiologia, vol. x x™. The origin near Pitmachie, Aberdeenshire. On the edge is an inscription
of the Teutonic Runes is still contested. Some derive them from
the Greek letters; others directly from the symbolic or hieroglyphic
system of writing, and make them as old as any other
phonetic alphabet, even the cuneiform and Phoenician. Haigh,
"Conquest of Britain by the Saxons," 1861, p. 25-114.
t One of the Bressay inscriptions, though consisting of but
four words, is m two languages, Old-Norse and Irish. Crosc
Ntthil/dads Dattr Ann.—" The cross of Naddad's daughter
here." Proc. R. I. Acad. 1855, vol. vi. p. 248. Gent. Mag.
July, 1855, p. 80.
i Arch. Cambrensis, 3rd ser. vol. vi. p. 128; also pp.
223, 314; vol. v. pp. 340, 343, 345. The inscription on the
stone found at Fardel, Devon, has much analogy with this at
St. Dogmael's, Pembroke, and reads SAGKANUI FANONI MAQ
viRi.Nl. Smirke.Report Royal Inst. Cornwall, 1861. Archseol.
Journ. vol. xviii. p. 175. Saran is an ancient Irish name:
see the legend of Saran, king in Cornwall (Irish Nenn. p. 178,
ci), Saran, the priest (O'Curry, loc. cit. p. 374), both in the
6th, and Saranns an Irish doctor or abbot (Bede, lib. ii. c. 19),
in the 7th century. The Ogham monuments of Britain are no
doubt to be ascribed to Irish missionary monks.
in Oghams, and on the face a second, the language and characters
of which are both unknown. The late Dr . Mill of Cambridge
declared it to be Phoenician, but the letters run from left
to right, and cannot be Semitic. Dr. Petrie suggests that it
may be of the 7th century, and thinks it is in the Pictish language.
Proc. R. I. Acad. vol. iv. p. 253. Stuart, " Sculptured
Stones of Scotland," 1856, p. 1, pis. 1, 3, 34, 94, 95.
II Quoted ante, p. 53, with the other authorities.
^ Ammianus (Ub. xv. c. 9. § 3, 4) expressly names the
Druids as making this statement, on the authority of Timagenes,
whose work on the Gauls, written about the beginning
of our era, is unfortunately lost.
* * B. G. lib. vi. c. 18. Similar was the assertion of the
Germans (Tac. Germ. e. 2), whose Tuisco terra editus corresponds
with the Dk pater of the Gauls. Dionysius (fr, xiv.
c. 3.) says that the name of Celtica was by some derived from
the giant Celtus, who once reigned there. The giants were
fabled to be earth-born; Sophoclcs, Trachin. 1. 1060, "terra
edita moles gigantum." Cic. Tusc. Quest, lib. ii. c. 8.
+ t Strabo, lib. vii. c. 2. § 1, 2. Comp, lib. ii. c. 3. § C.
Strabo confounds high tides with deluges.
CHAP. V.] HISTORICAL ETHNOLOGY OE BRITAIN. 143
proved so disastrous in modern times, on the shores of the Cimbric peninsula*. One tribe of the
Belgic Gauls, the Aduatici, were descended from the Cimbri and Teutones t ; and it may be
this'tribe and the German Tungri, Tribocci, &c., who crossed the Rhine in later times, to whom
reference is here made. Thierry finds in this di-uidical tradition evidence for the division of the
Gauls into two races, corresponding with the Celt» and Belgse of Cffisar, the former speaking a
Gaelic, the latter a Cymric dialect; the memory of the advent of the former being enth-ely lost,
whilst that of the latter, who according to him, constituted the population of the entire northwestern
seaboard—Belgium and Armorica—remained t The views of Thierry, in this particular,
rest on no solid historical testimony.
A vague conjecture, not worthy of the name of tradition, that some of the Gauls were
descended from Trojans who fled from the destruction of Troy, is of earlier date than goneraUy
supposed, and was found in Timagenes §. This story is probably to be connected with the
politic alliance, which almost at the commencement of their intervention in Gaul, the Romans
formed vrith the .Sldui 1|. The honorary title of brothers, given to them by the Romans no doubt
made a deep impression on the barbarian ^duans, who, through the residence of their di'uid
Divitiacus at Rome, would become acquainted with the Julian claims to a Trojan descent, which
as brothers and kinsmen of the Romans, they were not slow to arrogate to themselves. There
is no trace of any other Gaulish tribe having made a similar pretension **. The story of the
Trojan origin of the iEduans is probably the original of that which makes Brute the Trojan, the
eponymus of Britain ; the fii-st traces of which are usuaUy supposed to be in Nennius, and which,
as amplified in Geoffrey, have had so evil an influence on early British history f t - Brutus is
doubtless a personification of Britain, derived from the name of the people. The name appears
in the Welsh Triads as Prydain, who established kingly power in the island, and is described as
the son of .¿idd the great J J.
A Phoenician origin, not so entirely absm-d, was implied for certain of the Celts, including
the Britons, in those Greek and GauUsh stories in which Hercules is represented as slaying the
autochthons, Albion, Ligur and Tauriscus ; founding Nemausus and Alesia ; and as having
by the women of the country, among whom Keltina the daughter of a king Pretanus is
named, many childi-en, who caUed by their own names the countries over which they ruled §§.
* Especially in 1216 and 1634, when several thousands perished.
Sir C. Lyell (Principles of Geology, p. 330) compares
the " Cimbrian deluge " of history (Florus, Ub. iii. c. 3),
with the devastations in later times on the shores of Jutland,
t B. G. Ub. ii. c. 29.
J Thierry, vol. i. Introd. p. 24, 28, 42.
§ Amm. Marc. lib. xv. c. 9. § 5. " Aiunt quidam paucos
post excidium Troice, fugitantes Graecos ubique dispersos, loca
h£ec occupasse tunc vacua."
ij B. G. lib. i. c. 43. This aUiance, a foedus cequum, existed
in 121 B.C. (Livy, epit. Ixi.) ; it dated probably from the
war with the Salluvii, 125 B.C.
^ Cffisar aUowed the claim preferred by Divitiacus; "iEduos
fratres consanguineosque a senatu appellatos." (B. G. lib. i.
C.33: comp.c. 31, 44 ; lib.vi. C.4, 12.) Cicero, at the same
time, allowed it. (Bp. ad Treb. vii. 10) ; " Non modo hostes
sed etiam fratres nostri /Edui . " See also Strabo, Ub. iv. c. 3.
§ 2. Tac. Ann. lib. xi. c. 26.
** Lucan appears in error, in attributing to the Arverni
what aU other writers ascribe to the jEdui.
Arvernique ausi Latio se fingere fratres
Sanguine ah Iliaco populi."—Lib. i. v. 427.
-H" " Insula in oceano est habitata gigantibus olim," Geoff.
Mon. Ub. i. c. I I , 16. These aboriginal giants are fabled to
have been destroyed by Brutus.
IX Triads, 1, 4, 8, 54. The claims of the Jidui to a Trojan
descent are, by Mr. H, L. Long, ingeniously connected with
those of the Britons to descend from ^ d d Mawr. (Early
Geography, &c. p. 45.)
Amm. Marc. Ub. xv. c. 9. § 3, 6. Parthenius, m the time
of Augustus (Erotic, c. 30), quoted by Thierry, vol. i. p. 62,
111, 132. The stray varies: comp. Apollod. lib. u. c. 5, 10.
Diod. Sic. lib. V. c. 24. Mela, Ub. ii. c. 5. By Dercynus or
Bergion, the Ligures must be intended : comp. iEschylus, aj).
Strabo, lib. iv. c. 1. § 7. Another version is in the fragment of
Dionysius of Halicaj-nassus (lib. xvi. c. 3, Mai, 1816), and in
Hesychius (Lex. and Etym. Magn. s. v. KeXrtii). The mythical
origin from Hercules was a favourite tradition of the
Gauls; and Ammianus says it was claimed in inscriptions
which he had himself seen in Gaul. The Irish stories of an
T J 2