TRANSACTIONS OF SECTION H. SOS 



from -witlim a century after tlie time of Gildas there tire indications that the 

 northern kilt which he regards as so strauo^e and curious had become the common 

 garb of Wales. When we come down to the twellth century' we find that it is the 

 national costume. Gii-aldus Cambrensis gives us a descriJDtion of the Welsh dress 

 in his own time, from which we learu 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 uf Elizabeth, that the Welsh exchanged their own for the English dress.' 

 The Welsh who sen-ed in the army of Edward II. at Baunockburu were remarked 

 •even by the Lowland Scotch for the scantiness of their attire,'- and we have evidence 

 that it was the same a century later.^ If we turn to Ireland we find that in ih>^ 

 ■days of Spenser, and later, the national costume of the Irish was the same as that 

 of the Welsh and the Highland Scotch. The knee-breeches and sword-coat whieli 

 characterise the typical Irishman in the comic papers are sur\ivals of the dres.«t 

 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 characterised the Keltic parts of Ijritain 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- 

 coimtrymen 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 been replaced by the kilt in warm countries, like Italy and Greece ; what is not 

 easily conceivable is that such a dress could have been replaced by the kilt in the 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 warm 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 characterised the coldest i^art of Britain, and subse- 

 quently mediaeval Wales also. Must we not infer, in the first place, that the 

 aboriginal population 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 Avhich 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 afford 

 to neglect any department of research which has to do with the life of man, however 

 widely removed it may seem to be from science and scientific methods of enquiry. 

 ■* Homo sum ; humani nihil a me alienum puto.' 



The following Papers were read : — 



1. The Primitive Seat of the Aryans. 

 By Canon Isaac Taylor, LL.D., Litt.D. 



In this paper the author discussed recent theories as to the region in which the 

 Aryan race originated. The prescientific Japhetiau theory and the Caucasian 

 theory of Blumenbach have long been abandoned. A few years ago the theory 

 advocated by Pott, Lassen, and Max Miiller, which made the highlands of Central 

 Asia the cradle of the Aryans, was received with general acquiescence, the oidy 

 protest of note coming from Dr. Latham, who urged that the Asiatic hypothesis 

 was mere assumption based on no shadow of proof. The recent investigation.*! 



' Tfit Breviary of Brytaine, Twyne's translation, p. 35 (ed. 1573). 

 = Barbour's Bruce, ix. 600-603. 



' .See Jones, History of the County of Brecknock, vol. i. p. 283 ; comp. Archcpo- 

 logia Cambrenm, 5th ser. No. 7 (1885), p. 227. 



