160 CEANIA BEITANNICA. [CHAP. VI.
i-i i
that it requires much more positive evidence for its establishment *. Our knowledge of the
Cymric Britons is derived from the western shores of our Island, almost solely, from
Cornwall to Cumberland, just as the Bretons of Lyddaw or Armorica are placed on the west of
France. Nomadic tribes sailing from the Cimbric Chersonese would be likely to land anywhere
rather than in the west; therefore we are compelled to presume that the Cimbri must have been
driven by the Belgse, who came after them, into these western regions. But what trace have we
of this ? And if such a com-se could be rendered probable in oui- Island, how is it to be reconciled
with likelihood in a country Kke Gaul t ?
The philological testimony, as far as it goes, tends quite to the same effect, viz. to show that
the aUiance between the languages of the Belg®, of Armorica, of South Britain and of Wales is
so close as not to allow of the intrusion of colonists derived from a source so distant as the
Cimbric Chersonese, much less from the shores of the Palus Mseotis, for whom we have a
right to assume a distinct dialect, if not tongue. Among the marks of resemblance between the
Britons and their Belgic neighbours enumerated by Tacitus, is that of language, which he says
is not much different. Those colonists from Gaul who settled in the southern parts of our island
have left in the names of the natural features of the country many terms which have their equivalents
in the Cymric, not in the Gaelic, much less in a tongue differing from both; and the languages
of Wales and Britany have a close alliance, as is well known J. Hence we deduce a
Long improbabiHty that the island was peopled by other and distinct colonies from the Cimbric
Chersonese before the arrival of the Belgse, who must have driven their precursors into the west.
I f this were true, it must stiH be admitted that, though strange to them in arms, the Belgse
were not strange to them in blood or in tongue—a very unlikely admission.
On philological grounds, Zeuss is considered to have proved that the language of the Gauls
and that of the Ancient Britons was identical, having only dialectical diversities, and also that
the tongue of the Ancient Britons is represented by the Cymraeg or Welsh, all which appears
materiaUy to narrow the compass of the inquiry into the origin of the Ancient Britons §.
The other hypothesis to which we have aUuded is one closely allied but more famous, and
the Cimmerians in Asia. This supposition has justly heen
abandoned by all modem writers."—Smith's " Diet, of Gr.
and Rom. Geography," Art. Cimbri. Such an abandonment
by modem writers must, however, not be taken too literally.
Dr. Prichard had previously explained the futility of this notion,
its origin from Posidonius, its prevalence among the
Romans after Strabo's admission of it as a probable conjecture,
and its sole foundation in the resemblance of the two names
and in a flagrant geographical error of the ancients.—Phys.
Res. vol. iii. p. 100.
X Garnett, "Philological Essays," 1859, p. 151.
§ "Of the language of the Celtre of Gaul we have no undoubted
specimens to show its grammatical construction; but
there are various detached words of it preserved by the classical
writers, which afford strong ground for believing that it was a
kindred tonguewith the original dialects of the British Islands."
Dr. Jno. O'Donovan, " Physical Characters of the Ancient
Irish," Ulster Journ. of Archseol. vol. vi. p. 191. The learned
author then goes on to refer to a curious list of the words so
preserved which was published at Lipsia in 1730, by Joannes
.•Vugustinus Egenolf, who appears not to have known that they
boreanyaflinitytothe Welsh or Gaelic. "In this list I flndaier.
* In the same Triad, the Cymry are said to come through
the " hazy ocean " to Lyddam or Armorica, as well as to Britain.
Mr. Lawes Long considers that this alludes to " an inferior
portion of the nation of the Cimbri," who emigrated to
Armorica. But it is worthy of remark that no trace of the
name Cimbri is to be found in Britany, or in the language of
the Bretons, where it might with equal right and propriety be
expected to exist. The haziness of the entire legend is almost
t M. Freret, the French antiquary, refused to receive the
alliance of the Cymry and Cimbri, in which he was supported
by Malte Brun, the geographer. Dr. Wood says, " Some late
authors venture to affirm that the first mhabitants of Britam
were Kimmerians, whom they denominate Cimbri and confound
with the Celtffi. It is, however, doubtful that the Kimmerians
were either Cimbri or descendants of them, and certain
that the Cimbri were not Celts, a nation solely and properiy
Gauls. The'assertion relative to the origin of the Britons is
not even a plausible conjecture."—Inquiry concerning the
Primitive Inhabitants of Ireland, 1821, p. 190. Dr. L.
Schmitz is still more decisive. He says, " Mere resemblance
of name led some of the ancients to identify the Cimbri with
CHAP. VI.] ETHNOGEAPHICAL SKETCH OE SUCCESSIVE POPULATIONS. 161
was propounded in its complete shape by M. Am. Thierry in his " Histoire des Gauloi." h^ing
been previously brought forward by Mr. Sharon Turner. It is buüt on the assi^mptx^ d nv d
f r o m L assertions of the ancient l i t e r s and a series of ingemous reasonmgs " C^ ^ -
deduced primarily from the Crimea to the Cimbric Chersonese, were ^
that they were of the same family as the Cete, and mamfested all the pecuhant.es f the ^ . c
character. Thierry further maintains that, long anterior to the invasion of the Cimb
S i n e s , and othZ allied tribes, the Kimmerians from the Tauric Chersonese bad o - - —
of Europe by partial and interrupted invasions, and that probably then- / f ^ ^
Lgun to d i sLb the northern frontier of Gaul ; that, during the seventh centi^y before «
t h L were great migrations of Asiatic peoples, which had the effect of
Chnbric hordes westward ; and that a considerable army of Cimbri was led by
which crossed the Ubine at its lower part and penetrated into Gaul. The chie
invasion was spent on the maritime coasts of the north of Gaul, and « ¿ ^ ^ f
ment of the invaders over one-half of the country, its north-western half, as fai south as the
mouth of the Garonne *. „f Wo s+n+p
We thus perceive, without following M. Thierry in the
ments and the arguments by which he supports them, his views on the ^ f
Celtic races by which Gaul was populated-his Kimris, or Kmario Gauls. Eor the other, his
G 1 or Gads l e admits a dilferLt source, makes reference to the account which ^ a n u s
i l l ! tuectedinGaulduring his residence in that country - ' I —
relates that he there learned an old tradition, said to be derived from the
the Gaulish population was indigenous, and that the other part had come from distant isles and
the grounds on which they are assumed are fai- too unstable. It is known that the region in
and a Z the Cimbric Chersonese was in after ages the birth-place 7
em^ated a series of the most daring and resolute tribes. But these, possMy
the Cimbri. who confessedly had the same kind of aggressive and acqmsitive propen^^^^^^^
not Gauls m anv sense. The Saxons and others inhabited the same country in an after age, i
Ts n^t t l M y they had some portion of the same blood. But in physical constitution Í and
r i t i constítutL they diifLd from the Gauls. The institutions of the two peoples were
equaUy contrasted, and their reUgious systems had Uttle or no resemblance.
I t was with the design of ascertaming the existence of the descendants of the two aces o
Gauls of Thierry, that Dr. W. P. Edwai-ds examined the populations of Prance. The result of the
f n q t y of this ccomplished man, made known in his essay addi-essed to he h i s t o p - s
o ^ d red to be confirLtory. Edwards concluded that the representatives of the Gaeb are t ^
I " numerous, and occui- in the eastern portions of the country " bien caracter sés
I t u n d y , the Lyonnais, Dauphiny, and Savoy), whilst the Kimris are the peop c of the
S I parts of Prance and of Britany,-and that in some provinces the two types are
a harbour or mouth of a river; alp, a mountain; arden, a
wood ; harr, loud singing or shouting ; bardi, poets ; baril, a
barrel; baro or vara, a soldier ; bod, earth ; bracchai, femornlia
rough, fierce ; glas, green; Icena, a Gallic covering or shirt of
Hnen, mentioned by Strabo; lug, light; maer, a superintendent
; 'brenn or bryn, a helmet; brog or brug, a district; bron,
the breast •, bulga, a leather bag ; cad, a bottle; cam. a rock ;
celia, beer; citcullus, a Gallic cowl or covering for the head,
mentioned by Martial; derw, an oak ; dunum, a city ; garw,
; mar, a horse; mor, the sea ; pyren, beer; vargi,
robbers."
* Hist, des Gaul. vol. i. p. 143, &c.
t Ibid. vol. i. p. 24.
X Perier, " Fragments Ethnologiqnes," 1857, p. 82.