Sept. 6. 1851.] 



NOTES AND QUERIES. 



171 



introduce to public notice a much older authority 

 than any that has yet been cited. 



It is known to but few antiquaries out of the 

 principality', tliat the ancient poetry of Wales 

 throws more light on the immediate post-Roman 

 history of Britain than any documents in existence. 

 These poems vividly pourtray the social condition 

 of the period, and contain almost the only records 

 of the great contest between the natives and the 

 Saxon invaders ; they prove beyond a doubt that 

 the Romans liad left tiie province in an advanced 

 stage of civilisation, and they supply us with the 

 means of affirming decisively, that the vine was 

 cultivated here to a very considerable extent. 



The antiquity of tliese poems admits of no rea- 

 sonable doubt; on that point the Vindication of 

 Turner enables the antiquaries of Wales to make 

 this assertion with conhdence : and having recently 

 translated most of our old poems, with a view to 

 future publication, I feel myself warranted in as- 

 suming them to belong to the si.xth and seventh 

 centuries of our era. One of these bards, Aneurin 

 by name, belonged to the British tribe, described 

 by the Romans as Ottadini, and by themselves as 

 the people of Gododin. This people were situated 

 at the junction of England and Scotland, and the 

 poems of this bard chiefly refer to that district; 

 but as the bards were a rambling class, and as the 

 bulk of the people from Chester to Dnmbarton 

 were the same race as the people of the princi- 

 pality, we are not surprised when we find this 

 bard sometimes among "the banks and braes of 

 bonny Doon," and sometim.es in North and South 

 AVales. In one .of his verses he thus describes the 

 kilt of a British chief: — 



" Peis dinogiit e vrelth vreith 

 O grwjn balaot ban urcith." 



These lines may be found in the Myvyrian Ar- 

 chiBology, vol. i. p. 13. col. 1.; and a most unwar- 

 rantable translation of dinngat may be found in 

 Davies' Mythology of the Druids ; but the literal 

 rendering would be this : 



" Dinogad's kilt is stripy, stripy, 

 Of the skins of front-streak'il wolf-cubs." 



Peis or pais is the word now used for tlie 

 article of female attire known as a petti-coat, 

 which in form bears a sufficiently close resemblance 

 to tiie male kilt to justily me in using that word 

 here. It also occurs in puis-urfau, a coat of arras, 

 nnd pais-ddiir, a coat of mail. The words vreith 

 vreith have been translated word lor word ; in the 

 Kymric language it is a very common form of 

 ein|ihatic ex[)ression to repeat tlie word on which 

 the emphasis fails, as yn dda da for very good ; but 

 a more idiomaiic translation would have been, 

 very stripy. Vraith with us also stands for plaid, 

 and in the Welsh Bible Josepli's "coat of many 

 coU)urs " is named siacced vraith. 



Now I will not attempt to determine what re- 



lation this kilt stands in to the kilts of the High- 

 lands, whether the Gael borrowed it from the 

 Briton, or the Briton from the Gael, or whether 

 the dress was connnon to both at the time in which 

 Dinogad lived ; but thus much appears to be clear, 

 that we here have a Jiilt, and that that kilt was 

 striped, if not a plaid; and it only remains for us 

 to determine the period at which Dinogad lived. 

 ^lost persons are acquainted with the name of 

 Brochuuiel, Prince of Pcnvys, the British com- 

 mander at the battle of Bangor in 613, on the 

 occasion of the dispute between Augustine and 

 the primitive British church ; Dinogad stood to 

 him in the following relation : 



Brochmael 



I 

 Cynan Garwyn 



I I 



Seltf or Salomon. Dikogad. 



Of Dinogad himself there is but one fact on 

 record, and that took place in 577. His brother 

 Selyf fell at tlie battle of Bangor or Chester in 

 613. If we take these facts together, we may 

 form a pretty accurate idea respecting the period 

 at which he lived. 



Viewing this matter from a Cambrian stand- 

 point, I feel myself warranted in hazarding the 

 following remarks. In tlie lines of Aneurin, the 

 thing selected for special notice is the excess of 

 stripe ; and therefore, whether it was the invention 

 of Dinogad, or whether he borrowed the idea 

 from the Scots or Picts when he was at Dum- 

 barton in 577, it is quite clear, from the repetition 

 of the word vreith, that his kilt had the attribute 

 of stripyness to a greater extent than was usually 

 the case ; while it is also equally clear, that 

 amongst the Britons of that period, kilts of a 

 stripy character were so common as to e.xcite no 

 surprise. We may therefore affirm, 



1. That in the beginning of the seventh cen- 

 tury the British chiefs were in the habit of wear- 

 ing skin kilts. 



2. That striped kilts were common. 



3. That a chief named Dinogad was distinguished 

 by an excess of this kind of ornament. And 



4. That as the Kymry of North Britain were on 

 intimate terms with their neighbours, it is highly 

 probable that the Scottish kilt is much older than 

 1597. T.Stephens. 



Mcrthyr Tydfil. 



NOTES ON JULIN, NO. I. 



(Vol. ii., pp. 230. 282. 379. 443.) 



In approaching a subject set at rest so long 

 since, 1 feel some apology due to you ; and that 

 apology I will nnike by giving you the results of 

 my recent investigation of the question of Vineta 



