Sept. 29, 1887] 



NATURE 



515 



pojitive statement of Gilda^, the British writer, the solitary wit- 

 ness who has survived to us from the da -k period of heathen 

 invasion. lie asserts that the ships called "keels" by the 

 SaxDns were called /(W^'ic naves "in our language" ("nostra 

 ]in£ua," "Hist.," 23). In the middle of the sixth century, 

 theiefore, Latin was still the language of the Kelt south of the 

 Roman Wall. Such being the case, it is not Keltic but Latin 

 wor.ls thai we must expect to have been borrowed by Anglo- 

 Saxon, if the British populatijn, instead of being exterminated, 

 liveil under and by the side of their Teutonic invaders. Now 

 these borrowed Latin words exist in plenty. They have come 

 not only from the speech of the towns, but also from the speech 

 of the country, proving that the country population must have 

 used Latin like the inhabitants of the towns. In an interesting 

 little book by Prof. Earle on the Anglo-Saxon names of plants, 

 a list is given of the names of trees and vegetables that have 

 been taken from a Latin source. Where the tree or the 

 vegetable was one with which the invaders had not been 

 acquainted in their original home, the name they gave to it was 

 a Latin one, like the clicny or cerasus, the />ox or buxus, the 

 fennel ox fcniculum, the mallow or malvx, the poppy or papaver, 

 the ratiish or radix. Such names they could have heard only 

 from the serfs who tilled the ground for their new lords, not 

 froin the traders and soldiers of the cities. It is much the same 

 when we turn to the nanes of agricultural implements which 

 imply a higher order of culture than the simple plough or 

 mattock, the name of which last, however is itself of Keltic 

 origin. Thus the coulter is the Latin culler, the sickle is the 

 Latin seciila. That other agricultural implements bore Teutonic 

 names jiroves merely that the Saxons and Angles were already 

 acquainted with them before they had quitted their primitive 

 seats. 



The philological argument has thus been cut away from under 

 the feet of the advocates of the theory of extermination, and 

 shown to tell precisely the contrary tale. It has disappeared 

 like the p'lilological argument by which the theory of the origin 

 of the Aryans in Asia was once supposed to be supported. But 

 there still remains one difficulty in our path. 



This is the fact that the languages spoken in Wales, and till 

 recently in Cornwall, are Keltic and not Latin. If Latin had 

 been the language of the Keltic population of Southern Britain 

 when the Romans left the island, how is it that where the Keltic 

 population still retains a language of its own that language is 

 Keltic ? The answer to this question i ; to be found in history 

 and tradition. Up to the sixth century the Teutonic invaders 

 gained slowly but steadily upon the resisting Britons. They 

 forced their way to the frontiers of what is now Wales, and 

 there their further course was checked. The period when this 

 took ])]ace is the period when Welsh literature first begins. But 

 it begins, not in Wales, but in Strathclyde, or South- Western 

 Scotland, to the north of the Ro nan Wall. Its first records 

 relate to battles that took place in the neighbourhood of Carlisle. 

 From thence its bards and heroes moved southwards into North 

 Wales. Tradition commemorated the event as the arrival in 

 Wales of " Cunedda's men." The sons of Cunedda founded 

 the lines of princes who subsequently niled in Wales, and the 

 old genealogies mark the event by suddenly substituting princes 

 ■with Welsh names for princes with Latin names. The rude 

 Keltic tribes of Strathclyde cime to the assistance of their more 

 cuhured brethren in the south, checking the further progress of 

 the foreigner and imposing their domination nnd language upon 

 the older population of the country. It is probable that the dis- 

 appearance of Latin was furlhel- aided not only by the destruc- 

 tion of the cities and the increa ing barbarism of the people, but 

 also by the settlement of Irish colonies, more especially in South 

 Wales. At all events the ruin of cities like Caerleon and Caer- 

 went must be ascribed to Irish marauders. We can now 

 explain why it is not only that Wales speaks Welsh and not 

 Latin, but also why a part of the country which, according to 

 Prof. Rh^s, was mostly peopled by Gaelic tribes before the 

 Roman conquest, speaks Cymric and not Gaelic. As for Cornish, 

 its affinities were with Breton, and since history knows of frequent 

 intercourse between Cornwall and Brittany in the age that fol- 

 lowed the departure of the Romans we may see in the Cornish 

 dialect the traces of Breton influence. 



The arrival of " Cunedda's men " and the re-Keltization of 

 Wales leads me to the second line of evidence to which I have 

 alluded above. The bearing ot the costu ne of a people upon 

 their ethnography is a nmiter which has been much neglected. 

 But there are few things about which a population — more 



especially in an early stage of society — is so conservative as in 



the matter of dress. When we find the Egyptian sculptor repre- 

 senting the Ilittites of the warm plains of Syria clad in the 

 s -.ow-shocs of the mountaineer, we are justified in concluiing that 

 they must have descended from the ranges of the Taurus, wliere 

 the bulk of their brethren continued to live, just as the similar 

 shoes wiih turned-up ends which theTurks have introduced among 

 the upper classes of -Syria, Egypt, and Northern Africa, point to 

 the northern origin of the Turks themselves. Such shoes are 

 utterly unsuitcd for walking in over a country covered with 

 gras«, brushwood, or even stones ; they are, on the contrary, 

 admirably adapted for walking on snow. 



Now the dress of Keltic Gaul and of Southern Britain also when 

 the Romans first became acquainted with it was the same as the 

 dress which " linguistic palaeontology " teaches us had been worn 

 by the primitive Aryans in their first home. One of its chief con- 

 stituents were the bracca, or trousers, which accordingly became 

 to the Roman the symbol of the barbarian. We learn, however, 

 from sculptures and other works of art, that before the retire- 

 ment of the Romans from the northern part of Europe they had 

 adopted this article of clothing, at all events during the winter 

 months. That the natives of Southern Britain continued to weai 

 it after their separation from Rome is clear from a statement of 

 Gildas (" Hist." 19) in which he refers in no flattering terms to 

 the kilt of the Pict and the Scot. Yet from within a century 

 after the ti ne of Gildas there are indications that the northern 

 kilt, which he regards as so strange and carious, had become the 

 common garb of Wales. When we come down to the twelfth 

 century we find that it is the national costume. Giraldus Cam- 

 brensis gives us a description of the Welsh dress in his own 

 time, from which we learn that it consisted simply of a tunic and 

 plaid. It was not until the age of the Tudors, according to 

 Lluyd, the Welsh historian of the reign of Elizabeth, that the 

 Welsh exchanged their own for the English dress. ^ The Welsh 

 who served in the army of Edward II. at Bannockburn were 

 remarked even by the Lowland Scotch for the scantiness of their 

 attire (Barbour's " Bruce," ix. 603-603), ^nd we have evidence 

 that it was the same a century later.^ If we turn to Ireland we 

 find that in the days of Spencer, and later, the natio lal costume 

 of the Irish was the same as that of the Welsh and the Highland 

 Scotch. The knee-breeches and sword-coit which characterize 

 the typical Irishman in the comic papers are survivals of the 

 dress worn by the English at the time when it was adopted in 

 Ireland. 



The Highland dress, therefore, was once worn not only in 

 the Scotch Highlands and in Ireland, but also in Wales. It 

 characterized the Keltic parts of Britain with the exception 

 of Cornwall and Devonshire. Yet we have seen that up to 

 the middle of the sixth century, at the period when Latin 

 was still the language of the fellow-countrymen of Gildas, and 

 when "Cunedda's men" had not as yet imposed their 

 domination upon Wales, the old Keltic dress with trousers 

 must have been the one in common use. Now we can 

 easily understand how a dress of the kind could have been 

 replaced by the kilt in warm countries like Italy and Greece ; 

 what is not easily conceivable is that such a dress could have 

 been replaced by the kilt in the cold regions of the north. In 

 warin climates a lighter form of clothing is readily adopted ; in 

 cold climates the converse is the case. 



I see, consequently, but one solution of the problem before 

 us. On the one hand, there was the distinctive Keltic dress of 

 the Roman age, which was the same as the dress of the primitive 

 Aryan, and was worn alike by the Kelts of Gaul and Britain 

 and the Teutons of Germany ; on the other hand, there was 

 the scantier and colder dress which originally characterized the 

 coldest part of Britain, and subsequently mediaeval Wales also. 

 Must we not infer, in the first place, that the aboriginal popula- 

 tion of Caledonia and Ireland was not Keltic — or at least not 

 Aryan Keltic? and, secondly, that the dominant class in Wales 

 after the sixth century came from that northern portion of the 

 island where the kilt was worn? Both inferences at all events 

 agree with the conclusions which ethnologists and historians 

 have arrived at upon other grounds. 



Perhaps what I have been saying will show that even a 

 subject like the history of dress will yield more results to 

 ethnological study than is usually supposed. It will be another 

 illustration of the fact that the student of humanity cannot 



' " The Breviary of Brytaine," Twj-ne's translation, p. 35 (ed. iS73) 

 « See Jones, "History of the County of Brecknock," vol. i. p. 283; 

 c^mp. ".\rcha:ol <gia Canbrensis," sih ser. No. 7 (1885), p. 227. 



