The Era before the Roman Occupation. 3 



•' Veni, vidi, vici," was no doubt fully capable of augmenting 

 the triumphs won by its holder's sword. Yet, on the other 

 hand, Avhen we read his writings on the subject of his enemies' 

 domestic life and ethics, there would be less temptation to 

 romance than when he was dilating upon the terrible scythe- 

 armed chariots, or the combined cavalry and infantry for- 

 mation through which he and his men hacked their way to 

 victory. Now and then, too, we are able to corroborate, some- 

 times even to supplement, such information by the remarks 

 of his contemporaries. 



AVhen we grumble at the small allowance of agricultural 

 information that has filtered through to our times, we must 

 bear in mind that this was an age especially devoted to war 

 and the chase, than which no greater antagonists to the milder 

 pursuit of husbandry can possibly be imagined. Successful 

 generals were not likely to spend much time in describing 

 on their tablets the habits of bucolic life, the peculiarities 

 of cultivation, the varieties of live-stock, and the methods of 

 their management, noticeable in a subjugated country. The 

 Britain of two thousand years ago was in many respects like 

 the jSTew Zealand known to its earliest European explorers. 

 Those lands near the sea-shore and their inhabitants' minds 

 could both boast of some slight cultivation, but the back- 

 woods were occupied by men whose intelligence was as 

 stunted as that of Stanley's famous dwarfs. 



Corn was the prominent product of husbandry ; and the 

 evidence of a few dilapidated monuments, as well as a not 

 long obsolete West Highland custom,^ corroborates Diodorus ~ 

 in his description of the subterranean chambers for housing 

 the corn in ear, and the beating out, dr^-ing, bruising, and 

 roasting the daily portion, which Martin in more modern times 

 relates with the graphic accuracy of an eye-witness as so 

 skilfully performed by the Highlander's womankind. Dio- 

 dorus,^ too, speaks disparagingly of their wretched thatch- 



^ Martin, Descr. of Western Isles of Scotl., p. 20-1. 

 ^ Diodorus Siculus, lib. v. ch. 21, 22. 



^ Id. Ibid. Csesar, Bell. Gall.^ lib. v. cli. 1-23, and Strabo, Geogr., lib. 

 iv. p. 278. 



