sion of Egypt some 2000 years b . c. ; but our modifications of tbis
view, from the study of her monuments, will appear in tbeir place.
“ On arriving in Gaul, the Gaels found the banks of the Rhone, the Garonne and the Loire,
in possession of a people who spoke a different language and had different usages. They,
from time immemorial, had crossed the Pyrenees, and held the soil as first occupants.
They were Iberians.”
About the time alluded to, there seems to have been a great com-
mqtion among the white races of Asia ; and the Gauls or Celts, and
perhaps the Hyksos, (whose name means “ royal shepherd,”) may
have been diverging streams of the same stock. Dr. Morton points
out a head, often repeated on the monuments of Egypt, which he
F ig . 9.55
regards as of Celtic stock. These people,
called “ Tokkari” in hieroglyphics, are prisoners
in a sea-fight of R am se s IEL, of the
XXth dynasty, about the thirteenth century
B. C. They are, without#; question, the
Toehari of S trabo. In his manuscript
“ Letter to Mr. Gliddòn,” Dr. M orton reputes
these people to
“ Have strong Celtic features ; as seen in the sharp
face, the large and irregularly-formed nose, wide mouth,
and a certain harshness of expression, which is character-
I istic of the same people in all their varied localities.
Those who are familiar with the Southern Highlanders
(of Scotland) may recognize a speaking resemblance.” 57 É
But the interest in them is greatly enhanced
by cuneiform discovery.
Here are the same “ Tokkari,” from
Assyrian monuments of the age of S e n n a c
h e r ib , about b . o. 700.68
It is, to say the least, a very remarkable
fact, that we find upon Egyptian monuments,
beginning from the A V 11th dynasty,
b . c. 1600, portraits in profusion,
corresponding in all particulars with the
blond races of Europe, whose written
history opens as far west as Gaul and
Germany": and now Assyrian sculptures
present us with the same blond races in
thè VHth and VHIth century before our
era.
When the two races first met in Europe,
the blond from the south-east and the dark
from the west, they encountered each other
as natural enemies, and a severe struggle
Fio. 10.
ensued. The Gaels finally forced their way; into Spain, and established
themselves there; became more or less amalgamated with
the darker occupants, and were called the Celt-lberians. These two
types have ever since been commingling; but a complete fusion has
not taken place, and the types of each are still clearly traceable.
One pristine population of the British Isles was probably Iberian;
and their type is still beheld in many of the dark-haired, dark-eyed
and dark-skinned Irish, as well as occasionally in Great Britain itself.
The enormous antiquity of the Iberians in Europe is admitted on
all hands; but their origin has been a subject of infinite disputes.
Their type, both moral and physical, is so entirely distinct from that
of the ancient fair-skinned immigrants from Asia, that it would be
unphilosdphical to claim for both a common source, in the present
state of knowledge..
D uponceah long ago wrote of the Basque, living representative
of the Iberian tongue —
“ This language, preserved in a corner of Europe, hy a few thousand mountaineers, is
the sole remaining fragment of, perhaps, a hundred dialects, constructed on the same plan,
which probably existed, and were universally spoken at a remote period, in that quarter
of the world. Like the hones of the mammoth, and the relics of unknown races which
have perished, it remains a. monument of the destruction produced by a succession of ages.
It stands single and alone of its kind, surrounded by idioms whose modern construction
bears no analogy to it.”
We borrow the quotation from P r ic h a r d ,69 who has profoundly investigated
the theme; and this idea of the antiquity of tlie Basque or
“ Iberic” tongue, termed “ Euskaldune” by its speakers, is eloquently
exemplified by L a th am .
“ Just as, in geology, the great primary strata underlie the more recent superimposed
formations, so does an older and more primitive population represent the original occupants
of Europe and Asia, previous to the extension of the newer, and (so to say) secondary—
the Indo-Germans.
“ And just as, in geology, the secondary and tertiary strata are not so continuous but
that the primary formations mhy, at intervals, show themselves through them, so also do
the fragments of the primary population still exist—discontinuous, indeed, but still capable
of being recognized.
“ With such a view, the earliest European population was once homogeneous, from Lapland
to Grenada, from Tornea to Gibraltar. But it has been overlaid and displaced: the
only remnants extant being the Finns and Laplanders, protected by their Arctic climate,
the Basques by their Pyrenean fastnesses, and, perhaps, the next nation in orvder of notice.
The Euskaldune is only one of the isolated languages of Europe. There is another— the
Albanian.”
There was, truly then, an Iberian world before the Celtic world.61
“ Persons,” continues Bodichon, “ who have inhabited Brittany, and then go to Algeria,
are struck with the resemblance which they discover between the ancient Armoricans (¿Ae
Britons) and the Cabyles [of Algeria). In fact the moral and physical character is identical.
The Breton of pure blood has a bony head, light yellow complexion, of bistre tinge, eyes
black or brown, stature short, and the black hair of the Cabyle. Like him, he instinct-
| ively hates strangers. In botih the same perverseness and obstinacy, same endurance of