CHAP, ix.] IBEEIC AND OTHER ELEMENTS IN FRANCE. 



the geographical relations of the two peoples, is sup- 

 ported by an appeal to their physical characters. 



Just as the Iberian element in the French population 

 finds its centre in the Aquitania of Augustus, so is 

 Belgic Gaul the headquarters of the tall, fair -haired 

 element, considered by Dr. Broca and M. William 

 Edwards, 1 the representatives of the ancient Belgse, 

 whom they identify with the Kymri or Cimbri. It may 

 more probably be referred to the repeated invasions of 

 the north-eastern provinces by tall Germanic peoples, 

 by whom the Belgse were driven westward, and into the 

 central and southern parts of France. The intermediate 

 zone of Celtic Gaul is occupied partly by fair tall peoples, 

 who may be of Celtic, Belgic, or Teutonic ancestry, but 

 principally by a gray-eyed, brown-haired race, of moder- 

 ate stature, the natural result of the fusion between the 

 tall fair and the small dark races. This is considered 

 by Dr. Broca to be the result of the union of the Celt 

 with the Iberian, and to constitute the Celtse of Caesar 

 as distinguished from the Belgae. 



The physical differences which are evident, when we 

 compare the ancient Celt known to the Greeks and 

 Romans with the present inhabitants of Celtic Gaul, 

 may be explained by the consideration that the hordes 

 who invaded ancient Greece and Italy were on the 

 move, and therefore of comparatively pure race, while 

 the modern Celt is the result of the conquerors dwelling 

 side by side with the conquered, in the same country, 

 for an unknown number of centuries. The use of the 

 terms I/%>69 /u7<xSe9, KeXro-A^upe?, KeXr-IyS^e?, proves 

 that this fusion of races was going on in the earliest times 

 recorded in Spanish or Gaulish history. Plutarch, in 



1 Mem. d'Anthropologie, i. p. 284. 



