1890-91.] CELTIC, ROMAN AND GREKK TYPES. 179 



braces of the enemy's ships were to be cut with the boat hooks and 

 boarders called out in every instance of success in this manoeuvre. To 

 avoid this and escape the terrible short sword of the legionaries, the 

 Veneti wished to keep the open sea, and pointed every prow into the 

 wind — but the stars fought for Caesar that fateful day ; the wind 

 completely fell away, and, in the calm, the Romans with their oars were 

 to the Veneti with their useless sails, what a well equipped steam ironclad 

 of to-day would be to an old sailing line-of-battle ship. It was a tale of 

 eight hours' slaughter, the poor Veneti had no chance whatever of 

 escape ; by night-fall they had no fleet left to succor their beleaguered 

 towns, and as almost all their fighting men were slain, they surrendered ; 

 their senators were all put to death, the rest of the people sold for slaves. 

 Still, there must have been a remnant left, for Charlemagne had to 

 fight one or two severe campaigns against the Bretons, and in every 

 naval war since then, they have been, so to speak, on deck.* Cartier 

 was a Breton, Herve Riel the same, and even to-day " il iiy a que les 

 Bretons qui naviguentr 



Captain Olivier, of our steamer, was a Breton — witty, affable, a lover 

 of literature and science. We had many a discourse about the origin, 

 language and customs of the Bretons. Their Celtic instincts preserve 

 for them a lasting folklore — creatures like the Irish Banshee still exist 

 in Brittany — lingering about their menhirs (stones erect) and dolmens 

 (flat stones) of which, as in every country once Celtic, there are many. 

 And Capt. Olivier told me that having once been in Wales, he had found 

 Welsh terms quite intelligible to him, who then spoke Breton well. At 

 one time, within his memory, Breton was spoken in the public markets 

 of Brittany by preference, French being still a foreign language. Now 

 every one speaks. French, though many are still familiar with the old 

 Celtic speech. Of one of our exchanges, the Proceedings of the Breton 

 Geographical Society, with head quarters at L'Orient, a Breton motto. 

 EVIT AN DESKADUREZ AC AR VRO, adorns the cover. Rev. Neil 

 MacNish, B.D., LL.D., of Cornwall, one of our members, translates 

 this, "For the instruction of the country." Lieut. Col. Quoniam, secre- 



* I am bound to say, however, that in the meagre accounts of the campaigns of Charlemagne 

 left to us, I have found no traces that the war was a naval one. In the severe campaign of 

 Charles the Bald against the King of Brittany, the principal battle was won by heavy armed 

 French horse against light armed Breton horse. It was fought on the marches of Brittany — 

 one might really say the marshes. The account given carries an addendum that immediately 

 thereafter, the King of Brittany went to the channel, and piloted the Norsemen around the 

 coast to the mouth of the Loire. I also ."ind statements that those Bretons were encouraged by 

 their kinsmen in Wales and Cornwall, and they must have been seafaring folk for such events to 

 be possible. The borders of Brittany, with the marches, were more extensive than the province 

 of later days. 



