214 THE RACES OF THE DANUBE. [xi. 



less hypothetical. In following the successive stages 

 of Aryan invasion, we gradually emerge from this 

 twilight of plausible hypothesis into the clearness 

 of authentic history. The Aryans came, as just 

 observed, in successive swarms. The first series 

 of swarms got naturally the most mixed up with 

 the Iberian aborigines, and the result of their gradual 

 settlement was the formation of the Keltic, Italic, 

 and Hellenic peoples. In Spain the aborigines held 

 their own most successfully, and hence the mixture 

 was recent enough to be recognised by Roman 

 historians, who called the Spaniards Kelt-Iberians; 

 but elsewhere it was accomplished so early as to 

 be forgotten before people began to write history. 

 It has been fashionable to sneer at zealous Irish 

 writers for their propensity to find traces of the 

 Kelts everywhere. But there is no doubt whatever 

 that the Kelts were once a very widely diffused 

 people. They have left names for rivers and moun- 

 tains in almost every part of Europe. The name 

 of the river Don in Russia, for example, is one of 

 the common Keltic names for water, and so we find 

 a river Don in Yorkshire, a Dean in Nottingham- 

 shire, a Dane in Cheshire, and a Dun in Lincoln- 

 shire. The same name appears in the Rho-tffo/z-us, 

 or Rhone, in Gaul ; the Eri-^-us, or Po, in Italy ; 



