572 PHYSICAL CHARACTERlSTtfCS Of Tfifi 



gical, in contradistinction to geological researches. Of this, howefefy. 

 there is not only no proof, but the existence of pre-Celtic races, to* 

 whom the implements and arts of the European Stone Period were 

 assignable, had been maintained both on technological and philological 

 grounds, before the traces of Cave-Men, or the Flint-Folk of post- 

 pliocene ages, had been demonstrated by the geologist, from e^id^nce' 

 derived to a great extent from the French drift, where it is cverlaicJ 

 by the graves and buried arts of the ancient Gaul and his Bomanf 

 conqueror. 



From the date of Julius Cesar's conquests, the native population' 

 both of Gaul and the British Isles have been made the subjects of 

 descriptive comment by some of the most observant writers. But 

 their notices of the tribes on both sides of the English Channel^ 

 suffice to remind us, that in speaking of the Celts we are not deal- 

 ing with an isolated and homogeneous people, but with diverse nations 

 of a common race, which once filled Central Europe ; and which,, 

 moreover, in the earliest period of their definite history, Mere the 

 occupants of a diminishing area, encroached upon by Germanic and 

 other nations, before the Romans stepped in to complete the changes- 

 already in progress. There were Gauls or Kelts to the south, and to' 

 the east of the Alps, to the south of the Pyrenees, to the north of the' 

 English Channel, and — according to archseological evidence, ^ — ^seem- 

 ingly even to the north of the Baltic sea. Among the numerous 

 tribes of a common stock thus brought into contact with the most 

 diverse races of Europe, we must anticipate eonsiderahle variations- 

 from any assignable type. But this contact has been of a far closer 

 and more influential character since the fall af the B^oman Empire j. 

 BO that it is little more difficult to ascertain what were the specific 

 characteristics of the ancient Gaul or Briton, than it proves to be to 

 determine the typical attributes of the modern continental or insular 

 Celt. Few races of European origin, for example, show less indica-' 

 tions either of physical or moral affinity than the so-called French 

 and Irish Celts of Lower Canada t the one warm-hearted, but irras- 

 cible, pugnacious, and prone to excitement ; the other gentle, impas- 

 sive, and amiable to a fault. How far the common term is applicable 

 to both will be considered on a subsequent page. 



Caesar's account of the Gauls in the sixth book of his Bellum 

 Gallicum supplies the most comprehensive details we now possess m 

 reference to their manners and religion } and to him also we owe similar 



