428 NATURAL HISTORY OF 



armies invariably do on all other occasions, they multi- 

 plied to a nation, which was still flourishing at the com- 

 mencement of the Christian era, under the name of 

 Galatians. Though mutilation was not practised by the 

 Western Celtae who followed Druidical institutions, 

 the vociferation of the many epithets of Hu. and the 

 spinning dance " in graceful extravagance," according 

 to Taliesin, was well known to them : they had even 

 the ecstatic visions of the Syrian Galli, perhaps the 

 very same as the Howling Dervishes, who repeat the 

 ninety-nine perfections of Allah, and their brethren, 

 the twirling fanatics of the mosque of Ayoub, who 

 perform the like dances, and fall into similar fits of 

 frenzy and exhaustion. 



A multitude of other coincidences can be traced re- 

 lating to the highest developed religious system of the 

 Celtae in Western Europe, the more perfect, probably, 

 because, through Phoenician agency, the dogmas of Pa- 

 lestine and Syria had been carried westward rapidly, 

 and more unbroken, by nautical colonists. No doubt 

 an intercourse of consanguinity continued to exist be- 

 tween both, since the Galatians had returned eastward, 

 and established themselves a second time in a focus of 

 their ancient possessions, where there were around 

 them interminable denominations of places bestowed 

 by their ancestors; and it is likely a proportion of 

 the population still recognised them as relatives. The 

 southern clans having, in their most early communion 

 with Indo-Arab neighbours, acquired that dialect which 

 might be termed Celto Semitic, probably possessed the 



