TRANSACTIONS OF SECTION D. — DEPT. ANTHKOPOLOGT. 615 



districts and low-lands of Monmoutlishire and Glamorgan, the ancient seats of 

 Saxon, Norman, and Flemish colonisation, I find,' says this observer, 'the indices 

 of hair and eyes so low as 33-5 and 03 ; while in the interior, excluding the children 

 of English and Irish immigrants, the figures rise to 57-3 and 109'5-— this last ratio 

 indicating a prevalence of dark eyes surpassing what I have met with in any other 

 part of Britain' (p. 43). 



Many years ago, Mr. Matthew Moggridge, whose scientific work is well known 

 in this district, furnished the authors of the ' Crania Britannica ' with notes of the 

 physical characteristics of the Welsh of Glamorganshire. He defined the people 

 as "having ' eyes (long) bright, of dark or hazel colour, hair generally black, or 

 a very dark brown, lank, generally late in turning grey.' ^ 



There can be no question, then, as to the prevalence of melanism in this district. 

 Nor does it seem possible to account for this tendency, as some anthropologists have 

 suggested, by the influence of the surrounding media. Even those who believe 

 most firmly in the potency of the environment will hardly be inclined to accept the 

 opinion seriously entertained some years ago by the Rev. T. Price, that the black 

 eyes of Glamorganshire are due to the prevalence of coal fires." Long before coal 

 came into use there was the same tendency to nigrescence among the Welsh. This 

 may be seen, as Dr. Nicholas has pointed out, in the bardic names preserved in 

 ancient Welsh records, where the cognomen of da, or ' black,' very frequently occurs. 

 Thus, in the ' Myvyrian Archaiology of Wales,' between a.d. 1280 and 1330, there 

 are registered four ' blacks ' to one ' red ' and one ' grey '—namely, Gwilym Ddu, 

 Llywelyn Ddu, Goronwy Ddu, and Dafydd Ddu.^ 



' The' origin of this dark element in the Welsh is to be explained, as everyone 

 will have anticipated, by reference to the famous passage in Tacitus, which has been 

 worn threadbare by ethnologists. Tacitus tells us that the ancient British tribe 

 of Silures — a tribe'iuhabiting what is now Glamorganshire, Monmouthshire, Here- 

 fordshire, and parts at least of Brecknockshire ar.d Radnor — had a swarthy cora- 

 plexion, mostly with curly hair, and that from their situation opposite to Spain 

 there was reason to believe that the Iberians has passed over the sea and gained 

 possession of the country.'' It will be observed that although Tacitus speaks of 

 their dark complexion, he does not definitely state that the hair was dark ; but 

 this omission has, curiously enough, been supplied by Jornandes, a Goth who, in the 

 sixth century, wrote a work which professes to be an extract from the lost history 

 of Cassiodorus, wherein the very words of Tacitus are reproduced with the neces- 

 sary addition.' With these passages before us, can we reasonably doubt that the 

 swart blood in the Welsh of the present day is a direct legacy from their Silurian 

 ancestors ? 



Setting what Tacitus here says about the Silures against what he says in the next 

 sentence about the Britons nearest to Gaul (p. 5), it is clear that we must recognise 

 a duality of type in the population of Southern Britain in his day. This fact has 

 been clearly pointed out by Professor Huxley as one of the few ' fi.xed points in 

 British ethnology.' * At the dawn of history in this country, eighteen centuries ago, 

 the population was not homogeneous, but contained representatives both of Professor 

 Huxley's Melanochroi and of his Xanthochroi, If we have any regard whatever 



' Oran. Bo-it. vol. i. p. 53. 



* Essay on the Physiogiiomy and Physiology of the Present Inliabitants of Britain, 

 1829. 



' The Pedigree of the English Pcoj/leyMth. edition, 1878, p. 467. 



* ' Silurum colorati vultus et torti plerumque crines, et posita contra Hispania, 

 Iberos veteres trajecisse, easque sedes occupasse, iidem faciunt.' — Agricola, c. xi. 



' ' Sylorum ( = Silurum) colorati vultus, torto plerique crine, et nigro nascuntur.' — 

 Be Behus Geticis, c. ii. ; quoted in Mon. Hist. Brit., Excerpta, p. Ixxxiii. It is 

 conjectured that the classical word Silures is derived from the British name Essyl- 

 Iwyr, the people of Essylhrg. See Nicholas's History of Glamorganshire, \?>Tii, p. 1. 

 It is difficult to determine how far and in what respects the Silures resembled, or 

 differed from, the other inland tribes. Of the Caledonians and of the Belgse we 

 know something, but of tlie other inhabitants we are quite ignorant. 



* Critiques and Addresses, p. 166. 



