616 REPORT— 1880. 



for the persistence of anthropological types, we should hesitate to refer Loth of 

 these to one and the same elementary stock. We are led, then, to ask, Which of 

 these two types, if either, is to be regarded as Keltic ? 



It is because both of these types, in turn, have been called Keltic that so much 

 confusion has been imported into ethnolog'ical nomenclature ; hence the common- 

 sense conclusion seems to be that neither type can strictly be termed Keltic, and 

 that such a term had better be used only in linguistic anthropology.* The Kelt is 

 merely a person who speaks a Keltic language, quite regardless of his race, though 

 it necessarily follows that all persons who speak similar languages, if not actually of 

 one blood, must have been, at some period of their history, in close social contact. 

 In this sense, all the inhabitants of Britain, at the period of the Roman invasion, 

 notwithstanding the distinction between Xanthochroi and Melanochroi, were pro- 

 bably to be styled Kelts. There can be little doubt that the xanthous Britons 

 always spoke a Keltic tongue ; but it is not so easy to decide what was the original 

 speech of their melanochroic neighbours. 



The existence of two types of population, dark and fair, side by side, is a phe- 

 nomenon which was repeated in ancient Gaul. As the Silures were to Britain so 

 were the Aquitani to Gaul — they were the dark Iberian element. Strabo states 

 that while the natives of Keltic and Belgic Gaul resembled each other, the Aqui- 

 tanians differed in their physical characters from both of these peoples, and 

 resembled the Iberians. But Tacitus has left on record the opinion that the 

 Silures also resembled the Iberians ; hence the conclusion that the Silures and the 

 Aquitauians were more or less alike. Now it is generally believed that the relics of 

 the old Aquitaniau population are still to be found lingering in the neighbourhood 

 of the Pyrenees, being represented at the present day by the Basques. A popular 

 notion has thus got abroad that the ancient Silures must have been remotely affined 

 to the Basque populations of France and Spain. Nevertheless, the modern 

 Basques are so mixed a race that, although retaining their ancient language, their 

 physical characters have been so modified that we cau hardly expect to find in 

 them the features of the old Silurians. Thus, according to the Tlev. Wentworth 

 Webster, the average colour of the Basque hair at the present day is not darker 

 than chestnut. - 



Neither does language render us any aid towards solving the Basque problem. 

 If the Silures were in this country prior to the advent of the Gymrj-, and if they 

 were cognate with the Basques, it seems only reasonable to suppose that some 

 spoor of their Iberian speecli, however scant, might still be lingering amongst us. 

 Yet philologists have sought in vain for the traces of any Euskarian element in 

 the Oymraeg. Prince Louis Lucien Bonaparte, perhaps tlie only philologist in this 

 country who has a right to speak with authority on such a subject, has obligingly 

 informed me that he knows of no connexion whatever between the two languages. 

 Still it must be remembered that the Iberian affinity of the Silures, suggested by 

 the remark of Tacitus, does not necessarily mean Basque affinity. Some philo- 

 logists have even denied that the Basques are Iberians.'' All that we seek at 

 present to establish is this — that the dark Britons, represented by the tribe of 

 Silures, although they came to be a Keltic-speaking people, were distinct in race 

 from the fair Britons, and therefore in all lilieliliood were originally distinct in 

 speech. Nor should it be forgotten that relics of a pre-Keltic non-Aryan people 

 have been detected in a few place-names in Wales. Thus, Professor Rhj's is 

 inclined to refer to this category such names as Menapia, Mona, and Mynwy * — 

 the last-named being a place (Monmouth) withiu the territory of the old Silures, 

 where we are now assembled. \^'e may also look for light upon this subject from a 



' An excellent argument against the employment of national names by anthropo- 

 logists will be found in a paper by Mr. A. L. Lewis ' On the Evils arising from the 

 use of Historical National Names as Scientific Terms.' — Joiirn. Antlirop. Inst. vol. 

 viii. 187!>, p. 825. 



• ' The Basque and the Kelt.'— /«!/?•«. Antlirop. Tn.tt. vol. v. 1. TC, p. 5. 



' 'La Langue Iberienne et l.a Langue Basque.' Par M. Van Eys. Itevtie de 

 J.ingui.itique. July, 187-t. 



* • Lectures on Welsh Philology,' 2nd ed., p. 181. 



