38 A STUDY OX THE BELGJE IN SOUTH BB1TAIX. 



Some have quoted a Welsh tradition that Coraniaid came to 

 Britain from "Pwyll," which others have thought to mean 

 "Poland," a most wild opinion. I have not the Welsh words, 

 but it they are " Odd bwyll," the grammatical soft form of " Odd 

 pywll," they would seemingly mean "From force" rather than 

 from Poland, for a meaning of Pwyll is a driving force, such as 

 might be called that of the Teutonic race on the Gauls, and the 

 Celtic Belgae might have fled to Britain from the oppression of 

 the German Belgse who pushed them from the north, and in Britain 

 they themselves brought on the Britons the oppression which is 

 called in a Triad the oppression of the Coraniaid. A his- 

 torical triad, speaks of three oppressions. That of 1 , the Coraniaid ; 

 2, the Romans ; 3, the Saxons. Some Belgians fled to Britain 

 from political vengeance in the time of Csesar. Csesar, B. G. II., 

 14. A triad tells of three outfarings of British forces for warfare, 

 the first of which weakened the Britons so much as to give a 

 chance to the Coraniaid for their inroad and oppression. Caesar, 

 B. G.,IV., says that he hastened to go on into Britain because he 

 understood that in almost all the Gallic wars, forces were 

 afforded thence to the Gauls, a proof that Britons of 

 that time bore their weapons out of Britain. The Coranians are 

 said in the magic tales for children The Mabinogion (vol. HI., 

 3 00) to have been one of three plagues of Britain, and the tale adds 

 that their knowledge was such that there was no talk in Britain 

 so low, but that if the wind took it to them did not become 

 known to them. This betokens only a tradition that they were 

 keen witted and clever. It is said in the Greal (not the San 

 Greal) that their coin was, Arian Cor, Dwarf's money, whatever 

 that may mean, unless it means the Coianians' money. Ceesar 

 (B. V., 12) says that nearly all of the Belgic settlers in Britain 

 were called by the tribe-names " Nominibuscivitatum," of the 

 tribes from which they had sprung in Gaul. This should be re- 

 ceived warily, as there were cases of two tribes, one in Britain and 

 the other in Gaul, of the same name from other causes than that 

 of kindred. Geoffrey calls the Belgse in Britain Allobroges, and 

 Ceesar calls a tribe on the continent AUobroges, what then ? 



