io6 



THE LAND'S END 



nations and races of the earth that were at enmity 

 with them, from the conquering Romans back even 

 to the little fierce, shrill, brown-skinned Iberians, 

 " greedy as hawks," who had the temerity to oppose 

 them even as in our own day the little yellow 

 Japanese opposed the white and god-like Muscovites. 



For to his mind the 

 events he relates are 

 true, and the mighty 

 men he brings before 

 us, from Brennus to 

 Caractacus, as real as 

 any Beduin he hob- 

 nobbed with in Arabia 

 Deserta. Perhaps it 

 is even odder, with 

 regard to this epic, 

 which is undoubtedly 

 the greatest piece of 

 literature the young 

 century has produced, 

 that it should be the 

 work of an Irishman, and from beginning to end a 

 glorification of the Celts, yet wholly and intensely 

 Saxon in its character, with no trace of that special 

 quality which distinguishes the Celtic imagination. 



To return. The speech of the Cornish people is 

 another subject about which erroneous ideas may be 

 got from reading. Norden wrote that the native lan- 

 guage was declining in his day, and adds : "But of late 

 the Cornishe men have much conformed themselves 



THE CORNISH CELT 



