302 FOOTPRINTS OF VANISHED RACES IN CORNWALL. 



sat about her, that I asked if she were a native of the island, 

 and learned that she was a Highland girl."^ Here, evidently, 

 was a representative of the old Ivernian race. In Western 

 Ireland, beyond the Shannon, the same short, dark type, prevails. 

 It is found also in South Wales, where the darkest people are 

 the inhabitants of the Ehonddha Valley."^^ These now dwell in 

 the land of the ancient Silures, who were Ivernians. Cornwall, 

 also, shows this dark tint, which is so often ascribed to the 

 intermixture of Spanish blood. According to Dr. Beddoe,^^^ the 

 Cornish are the darkest people in England proper. Dark 

 complexions, black hair, and even Mongolian oblique eyes, being 

 frequently observed. Mr. Borlase also states^-^ that this dark 

 type is found in the fishing villages of Mount's Bay, In 

 Ireland, also, oblicj^ue eyes are from time to time observed. 



Thus we have found that in Cornwall we have traces of 

 at least four vanished races. First, the Palaeolithic men, who 

 were swept away by a great diluvial catastrophe ; secondly, the 

 dwarfs or pigmies, whom, for convenience, I have called the 

 " Piskey-Dwarfs ;" thirdly, the Dolmen-Builders, who mysteri- 

 ously departed from our shores ; fourthly, the Ivernians or 

 Iberians, who were partly assimilated into the Celtic race. All 

 these tribes lived in the Neolithic or Later Stone Age, and, with 

 the exception of the Ivernians in the later stages of their 

 history, were unacquainted with the use of metals. ^^^ 



Cornwall, in prehistoric times, presented a complicated 

 battle-field, in which, not only tribe fought with tribe, but race 

 strove with race. Wave after wave of population surged into 

 it, and the weaker were submerged and destroyed. Pace 

 followed race across the dim and hazy field, and strangers were 

 doomed in their turn to yield to other strangers who possessed 

 better weapons, and a higher social organisation. So for ages 

 the struggle went on. Till the all-conquering Saxon broke the 

 power of both Celt and Ivernian, and Cornwall's isolated 

 existence came to an end, being lost in the glories of a united 

 England. 



220. Popular Tales of the West Highlands, vol. iii., p. 1x14. 



221. Social England, p. i. 



222. The Races of Britain, pp. 26, 2_t.8. 

 2i3. Age of the Saints, pp. jrvi., xvii. 



224. Mr. Hector McLean says that there were three or four pre- Celtic races in 

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



