ovbemterrarum, sedem cepit. Procera corpora, promissaeetruti-
latee comae, vasta scuta, praelongigladii; ad hoc cantus incho-
antium prselium, et ululatus, et tripudia, et quatientium scuta
in patrium quendam morem, horrendus armorum crepitus;
omnia de industria composita ad terrorem.” * From the description
itself, even without the certainty of historical proof
otherwise obtained, we might conclude without the least hesitation
that Gaulsare here described, and that the characteristics
of the xanthous complexion are attributed to a Celtic people.
On the whole it mpst be concluded that the Gauls are
universally described by the ancients as a remarkably tall,
large-bodied, fair, blue-eyed, yellow-haired people. 'As however
Niebuhr observed that the Germans are no longer red-
haired, so-ther Gauls or their descendants have lost the yellow
hair of their forefathers. Although there is a great intermixture
of Northern German races in the p r e s e t population of
France, the Visigoths and Burgundians having settled in'the
South, and the Allemanni, Franks, and Northmen in thelnofth-
ern parts, all of whom had a complexion at least equaHy^fair with
that of the ancient Gauls, yet the modern French ateTax-from
a very fair people. Black hair is in the middle provinces of
France more frequent than very light. In_Paris’WJM§”beeh
observed that a chestnut colour is the most frequent hue*of the
hair. This appears from the average numbers of admiiMoiis
in some hospitals. Neither are the French so .hugh:ahd alm’ost
gigantic in their stature as were the ancient Gauls. Wqinust
infer that the physical character of the race has varied materially
within fifteen centuries.
Paragraph 2.—Of the physical characters of the Britons.
The ancients have left us very little information as to the
physical characters of the Britons. The passage already cited
in Strabo is the most particular. It is as follows: “ The men,
viz. the Britons, are taller—tbpwioTepoi-—than the Gauls and
less yellow-haired—l\aaov %avQ6rqvyeQ— and more infirm and relaxed
in their bodily fabric—yavvortpbc rolg at)qa<nv. As a.speci-
* Tit. Liv. lib. xxxviii. e. 17. Livy also describes them nearly J h th e same terms
as Diodorus. “ Sunt fusaet Candida corpora,Bt qua nunquam nisi in pugna nuclentur.’’
.(Lib. xxxviii.)
men of their stature is this fact: we ourselves saw at Rome
young men from Britain who in height exceeded the tallest men
there by, half a foot, and were crooked in their legs and not
well formed as to the make of their bodies.” In their manners,
he adds that they were in Some^respects similar to the Gauls,
in others more simple;and barbarous.*
Tacitus, in a passage often alluded to, describes the Britons
as differing in different parts, the Silurians being of dark comr
.piexion, with curled hair; the Caledonians of huge limbs and
red hair; and themihabitants of the countries nearest to Gaul,
v iz ! ,the,South of England, resembling the Gauls.
T ’rh is is nearly the sum pf all that .the Greek and Roman
writers have told us respecting the physical characters of the
Gauls and Britons. A few additional notices may be gleaned
^ 'm :writer's.,of the middle ages.
Dr. J. G. Radlof, a most diligent investigator of Celtic
antiquity, Jn* a .work published at Bonn- m „^8^2, tentitled
NgueJJ ntersuchu hgen des Keltenthpms,” Has found the Celts
hescrfn®h® ffl milk-white people” by two writers of the
middlejages- ; “ GalliM^candqirej corporis primdrn Galatae ap-
p e llatisunt|” , g^ps^ishop E u c h ^ iu a p f Lyons, in his tre^ lfe
jf^on Tribes.” Thefigaffi observation wm-umade by Rabanhs-
Maurus,
J xhe Gaelic Highlanders of Scotland spoke th e same language
and were the same people as the Irish Gael in the time of St.
Patrick, and in that of the earliest; Irish bards whose poems
are extanW^jThey are generally supposed to have been a different
race from thq^pld Caledonians, both by those who hold
th a t.th e Caledonians were a British,.or Welsh race, and by
those who agree with Pinkerton in looking upon them as Germans,
I t is curious that the oldest Irish composition extant
represents the Gael as a fair, yellow-haired people. A poetical
chronicle, which is supposed by Dr. O’Connor to be the
most ancient historical poem existing in the Gaelic language,
thus addresses the people:
A eolca Albain uile,
A shluagh feta folt-buidhe,
* Strabo, lib. iv. p. 200.