514 



NATURE 



[_Sept. 29, 1887 



their invasion is uncertain, but for myself I have grave doubts 

 whether it was earlier than the eighth or even the seventh cen- 

 tury B.C. At all events it was not until after the seventh century 

 B.C., as we now know from the express testimony of the cunei- 

 form inscriptions of Van, that the Aryan-speaking Armenians 

 entered the land which now bears their name, and recent philo- 

 logical researches have confirmed the assertion of Greek writers 

 that the Armenians were a colony of the Phrygians who had 

 themselves emigrated from Thrace. Up to the closing days of 

 the Assyi-ian empire the monuments make it clear that no Aryans 

 had as yet settled between the Kurdish ranges on the east and 

 the Halys on the west. 



But while the extension into Asia of what I will now, follow- 

 ing Penka's example, call the Aryan race, seems to be referred 

 to a comparatively recent period, there is a curious fact which 

 goes to show that the same, or a closely allied, race once spread 

 along the northern coast of Africa. On Egyptian monuments, 

 which date back to the sixteenth century before our era, the 

 Libyan tribes of this district are described and depicted as white. 

 Their descendants are still to be found in the mountainous parts 

 of the coast, those of Algeria being commonly known under the 

 name of Kabyles. I saw a good deal of them last winter, and 

 must confess to being greatly struck by their appearance. I had 

 known, of course, that they belonged to the white race and were 

 characterized by blue eyes and light hair, but I was not prepared 

 to find that their complexion was of that transparent whiteness 

 which freckles readily and is supposed to mark the so-called " red 

 Kelt." They are dolichocephalic, and as their skulls agree with 

 those discovered in the prehistoric cromlechs of Roknia and other 

 places it is plain that their distinctive features are not due, as 

 was formerly supposed, to intermixture with the Vandals. 



The cromlechs in which they once buried their dead are quite 

 as remarkable as their physical characteristics. Cromlechs of a 

 similar shape are found extending through Spain and western 

 France to the northern portion of the British Isles. Since 

 dolichocephalic skulls occur in connexion with them, while the 

 physical characteristics of the modern Kabyle resemble so 

 strikingly those of a particular portion of the modern Irish jjopu- 

 lation, we seem driven to infer that the Kabyle and the "red 

 Kelt " arealike fragments of a race that once spread from Scotland 

 and Ireland to the northern coast of Africa and interred its dead 

 in chambers formed of five la'ge blocks of stone. Though the 

 custom of burying in these cromlechs continued into the Bronze 

 Age, the majority of them go back to the Neolithic period. 



Are we to suppose, then, that one stream of Aryan immigrants, 

 after making its way to the west, wandered along the western 

 coast of Europe, and eventually crossed the Straits of Gibraltar 

 and took possession of Africa ? Or are we to believe that the 

 Aryan race of southern Scandinavia was allied in blood, though 

 not in language, with a population which inhabited the extreme 

 west of Europe, and had, it may be at the close of the (xlacial 

 epoch, passed over to the neighbouring mountains of Africa ? 

 It must be remembered that the Kabyle complexion is not pre- 

 cisely the same as that of the Scandinavian. Both are white, 

 but the skin of the one has a semi-transparent appearance, while 

 the whiteness of the other may be described as mealy. It will 

 be worth while to determine whether between the dolicho- 

 cephalism of the Kabyle and the dolichocephalism of the 

 Scandinavian any distinction can be drawn. 



The question has a bearing on the origin of a part of our own 

 population. I have already compared the Kabyle with the "red 

 Kelt." But the expression "red Kelt," like most popular ex- 

 pressions, is by no means exact. It confuses in one two distinct 

 types. The large limbed, red-haired Highlander, who calls to 

 mind the description given of the Kelts by the Latin historians, 

 stands in marked contrast to the small-limbed, light-complexioned 

 Kelt of certain districts in Ireland, whose skin is freckled rather 

 than burnt red by the sun. The determination of the several 

 racial elements in these islands is particularly difficult on account 

 of the intermixture of j opulation, and nowhere is the difficulty 

 greater than in the case of the Keltic portion of the community. 

 Long before the Roman conquest the intrusive Aryan Kelt had 

 been intermarrying with the older inliabitants of the country, 

 who doubtless belonged to more than one race, the result being 

 that the so-called Keltic race is an amalgamation of races differ- 

 ing physiologically but dominated by a common moral and intel- 

 lectual character — the consequence of subjection for a long series 

 of generations to the same conditions of life. It has become a 

 commonplace of ethnology that the so-called Keltic race includes 

 not only the fair-complexioned Aryan Kelt, but also, the " black 



Kelt " or Iberian with dark skin, black hair and eyes, and small 

 limbs. The subject, however, is much more complex than thiii 

 simple division would imply. We have seen that under the "ted 

 Kelt" are included two distinct varieties ; the "black Kelt" is 

 equally irreducible to a single type, \\ hile the fact that the two 

 types of "red" and "black" recur in the same family — my 

 own, for example— not only indicates their long-continued inter- 

 mixture, but suggests the existence of intermediate varieties. 

 The limitations and relations of dolichocephalism and brachy- 

 cephalism within the race also need further investigation. I hope 

 that this meeting, held as it is on the borders of what is still a 

 distinctively Keltic country, may help to settle these and similar 

 problems. 



Meanwhile I will conclude this address, which has already ex- 

 tended to an inordinate length, by direc:ing your attention to 

 two lines of evidence which have an important bearing on the 

 question of the extent to which the Keltic element enters into 

 the existing British population. A few years ago it was the 

 fashion to assert that the English people were mainly Teutonic 

 in origin, and that the older British population had been exter- 

 minated in the protracted struggle it carried on with the heathen 

 hordes of Anglo-Saxon invaders. The statement in the " Saxon 

 Chronicle" was quoted that the garrison of Anderida, or 

 Pevensey, when captured by the Saxons in a.d. 491, was all put 

 to the sword. But it is obvious that the fact would not have 

 been singled out for special mention had it not been exceptional, 

 while it is equally obvious that invaders who came by sea can 

 hardly have brought their wives and children with them, and 

 must have sought for both wives and slaves in the natives of the 

 island. Mr. Coote, in his " Romans of Britain," and Mr. See- 

 bohm, in his " English Village Community," have pointed out 

 the continuity of laws and customs and territorial rights between 

 the Roman and the Saxon eras, presupposing a continuity of 

 population, and anthropologists have insisted that the survival 

 of early racial types in all parts of the country cannot be 

 accounted for by the settlement of the Bretons who followed 

 William the Conqueror, or of the Welsh who came into Eng- 

 land when the penal laws against them were repealed by Henry 

 VIII. But the advocates of the theory of extermination had 

 always one argument which seemed to them unanswerable, and 

 which indeed was the origin of their theory. The language of 

 the Anglo-Saxons contains scarcely any words borrowed from 

 Keltic. Such a fact was held to be inexplicable except on the 

 hypothesis that the speakers of the Keltic dialects were all 

 exterminated before any intercourse was possible between them 

 and the invading Teuton. 



But I think I can show that the fact admits of quite another 

 explanation. Roman Britain was in the condition of Roman 

 Gaul ; it was a Roman province, so thoroughly Romanized 

 indeed that before the end of the first century, according to 

 Tacitus {" Agric," 18-21), even the inhabitants of North Wales 

 had adopted the Roman dress and the Roman habits of luxury. 

 After four centuries of Roman domination it is not likely under 

 these circumstances that the dialects of the British tribes would 

 have resisted the encroachments of the Latin language any more 

 than did the dialects of Gaul. The language, not only of 

 government and law, but also of trade and military service, was 

 Latin, while the slaves and servants who cultivated the soil were j 

 bound to understand the language of their masters. Moreover, [ 

 Britain was a military colony ; the natives were drafted into the 

 army, and there perforce had to speak Latin. If Latin had n>i 

 been the language of the country at the time the Romans left 1;, 

 the fact would have been little short of a miracle. JHI 



That it was so is certified by more than one piece of eviden^HI 

 The inscriptions which have survived from the period of t^F! 

 Roman occupation are numerous ; with the exception of three 

 or four Greek ones, they are all in Latin. Of a Keltic languajre 

 or dialect there is no trace. When the Romans had departe.: 

 and the inhabitants of Wales and Cornwall had been cut f ■■ 

 from intercourse with the civilized world, Latin was still th. 

 ordinary language of the mortuary texts. It is only gradual, 

 that Keltic oghams take their place by the side of the Roma 

 characters. When St. Patrick writes a letter to the Wels 

 prince of Cardiganshire, addressed not only to him but to hi 

 people as well, it is in the Latin language ; when St. Germanu 

 crosses into Britain to settle a theological controversy, and lead 

 the people to victory against the Saxon invader, he has no difli- 

 culty in being understood ; and the proper names of the British 

 leaders continue to be Roman long after the departure of the 

 Roman legions. What clinches the matter, however, is tKe 



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