FOOTPIUNTS OF VANISHED RACES IX CORNWALL. 293 



The Ivernians were short, being on an average less than 

 5-ft. 5-in. in height. They had black hair, straight noses, black 

 e3^es, and dark brown skins. The present Basques represent, 

 according to Professor Boyd Dawkins,^'^* the old Ivernian race, 

 and the crania of the ancient Silures, the Ivernians of South 

 Wales, are singularly like the Basque skuUs.^'^^ This short, dark 

 race, existed in the Higlilands of Western Scotland, ^^'^ and in the 

 Hebrides, the Fir Bolgs of Islay having been identified by 

 Mr. Skene,^^' with the Dumnonii of England and Scotland, and 

 with the Silures. In Ireland one of the names of the short 

 dark Ivernians was Fir-Bolg, that is "Men of the Bag." This 

 has very correctly been explained by Mr. Hector McLean, ^^ to 

 mean — "Men of the Quiver," from their custom of carrying 

 their arrows in a skin bag or pouch, while the Celts, Avho gave 

 this name to them, did not use the bow, but were armed with 

 spears and swords. A Fir Bolg warrior of Ireland is thus 

 described by an ancient writer : he is " A griffin of the race of 

 Conn, the Hundred tighter ;" he is called the Lion of Birra, and 

 the Hawk of the Shannon : "a large man of slender body, with 

 a skin like the blossom of apple-trees, brown eyebrows, black 

 curling hair, long fingers, and a cheek like the cherries. "'^^'^ As 

 this descrij)tion is rather poetical and figurative, we will picture 

 the Ivernian warrior in sober prose. He is a short but muscular 

 man, with a swarthy brown complexion, dark eyes, and coal-black 

 hair. He is clad in roughly woven cloth, over which hang 

 pouches of the skins of small animals. His head is decked with 

 feathers and shell pendants, and the teeth of wild animals are 

 hung by a string round his neck. In his right hand he carries 

 a spear with a flint point, his battle-axe of polished flint is stuck 

 in his girdle, his bow is in his left hand, and a skin bag, contain- 

 ing his arrows, hangs over his shoulders. His face is strangely 



154. Early Man in Britain, pp. 314, 315. 



155. Memoirs of the Anthropological Society, vol. ii., 1865-66, p. 356 [note.] See 

 also Mr. W. C. Borlase's Age of The Saints, pp. xv.- xvii, for further characteristics 

 of the Ivernian type and its Spanish connection ; that is, with the Basques of the 

 North Eastern parts of Spain. 



156. The Races of Britain, by Dr. Beddoe, pp. 26, 258. 



157. Celtic Scotland, vol. i. 



158. Journal of the Anthropological Institute, vol. vii., 1878, p. 78. 



159. Elton's Origins of English History, p. 140. [note.] Mr. Elton quotes from 

 Fitzgerald and O'Flaherty. 



