614 EEPORT— 1880. 



are but few aud small. It is true that a description of BunduiCaj or Boadicea, has 

 been left to us by Xijihiline, of Trebizond ; but then it will be objected that he 

 did not write until the twelfth century. Yet it must be remembered that he 

 merely abridged the works of Dion Cassius, the historian, who wrote a thousand 

 years earlier, and consequently we have grounds for believing that what Xiphiline 

 describes is simply a description taken fi-om the lost books of an early historian 

 who is supposed to have drawn his information from original sources. Now Boadicea 

 is described in these terms : ' She was of the largest size, most terrible of aspect, 

 most savage of countenance and harsh of voice, having a profusion of j^ellow hair 

 which fell down to her hips.' ^ Making due allowance for rhetorical exaggeration, 

 making allowance too for the fact that in consequence of her royal descent she is 

 likely to have been above the average stature, and even admitting that she dyed her 

 hair, it is yet clear that this British queen must be regarded as belonging to the 

 xanthous type — tall and fair. The tribe of the Iceni, over which this blonde 

 amazon ruled, is geuerallj' placed beyond the limits of the Belgic Britons; though 

 some authorities have argued in favour of its Belgic origin. If the latter view be 

 correct, we should expect the queen to be tall, light-haired, aud blue-eyed ; for, 

 from what we know of the Belgre, such were their features. Cresar asserts that the 

 majority of the Belgre were derived from the Germans.'- But notwithstanding this 

 assertion, most ethnologists are inclined to ally them with the Oelti, without, of 

 course, denying a strong Teutonic admixture. Strabo says^ that the BelgsB 

 and Celti had the same Gaulish form, though both differed widely in physical 

 characters from the Aquitanians. As to language, Oajsar's statement that the 

 Belgic and Keltic differed, probably refers only to dialectical difterences.^ If a close 

 ethnical relationship can be estaljlished between the Celti and the Belgoe, British 

 ethnology clearly gains in simplification. To what extent the Belgic settlers in 

 this country resembled the neighbouring British tribes must remain a moot point. 

 According to Strabo,'' the Britons were taller than the Celti, with hair less yellow, 

 and they were slighter in build. By the French school of ethnologists the Belgoe 

 are identified with the Cymr}-, aud are described as a tall fair people, similar to the 

 Cimbri already mentioned ; aud Dr. Prichard,the founder of English anthropology, 

 was led long ago to describe the Keltic type in similar terms.^ 



Yet, as we pass across Britain westwards, and advance towards those parts 

 which are reputed to be predominantly Keltic, the proportion of tall fair folk, 

 speaking in general terms, diminishes, while the short aud dark element in the 

 population increases, until it probably attains its maximum somewhere in this 

 district. As popular impressions are apt to lead us astray, let us turn for accui'acy 

 to the valuable mass of statistics collected in Dr. Beddoe's well-known paper ' On 

 the Stature and Bulk of Man in the British Isles,' ' a paper to which every student 

 refers with unfailing confidence, aud which will probably remain our standard 

 authority until the labours of our own Anthropometric Committee are sufficiently 

 matured for publication. Dr. Beddoe, summing up his observations on the physical 

 characters of the Welsh as a whole, defines them as of ' short stature, with good 

 weight, and a tendencj^ to darkness of eyes, hair, and skin.' With regard to this 

 tendency to darkness, it is well to look more searchingly at the district in which 

 we are assembled. Dr. Beddoe, iu another paper," indicated the tendency by a 

 numerical expression which he termed the inde.v of mr/rcscence. *Iu the coast- 



' Mon, Hist. JBrit., Excerpta, p. Ivi. 



" ' Plerosque Belgas esse ortos ab Germanis.' — Be Belh Gall. lib. ii. c. 4. 



' Lib. iv. c. i. \ 



* ' Quand C'ysar dit : Ili omncs Unf/un, institutis, leijihus, intiT se diffei'itnt, il faut 

 traduire ici le mot lingua ]}ox dialect c' — Les Dcrniers Bretons. Par Emile Souvestre, 

 vol. i. p. 141. 



' Lib. iv. c. 5. 



' Researches into the Physical History of Manhind. By J. C. Prichard, 51. D., F.R.S., 

 vol. iii. p. 189. 



' 3Iem. Anthroj?. Soc. Land. vol. iii. 1870, p. 384. 



• ' On the Testimony of Local Phenomena in the AVest of England to the Per- 

 manence of Anthropological Types,' — lUd. vol. ii. 1866, p. 37. 



