CHAPTER III. 



LIBERTY. 



The history of Europe in ancient times is the history 

 of those lands which adjoin the Mediterranean Sea. 

 Beyond the Alps lay a vast expanse of marsh and 

 forest, through which flowed the swift and gloomy 

 Rhine. On the right side of that river dwelt the 

 Germans ; on its left, the Celtic Gauls. Both people, 

 in manners and customs, resembled the Red Indians. 

 They lived in round wigwams, with a hole at the top 

 to let out the smoke. They hunted the white-maned 

 bison and the brown bear, and trapped the beaver, 

 which then built its lodges by the side of every stream. 

 They passed their spare time in gambling, drunken- 

 ness, and torpor ; while their squaws cut the firewood, 

 cultivated their garden-plots of grain, tended the 

 shaggy-headed cattle, and the hogs feeding on acorns 

 and beech-mast, obedient to the horn of the mistress, 

 but savage to strangers as a pack of wolves. At an 

 early period, however, the Gauls came into contact 

 with the Phoenicians and the Greeks ; they served in 

 the Carthaginian armies, and acquired a taste for 

 trade ; they learnt the cultivation of the vine, and 

 some of the metallic arts ; their priests, or learned 

 men employed the Greek characters in writing. But 

 the Gauls had a mania for martial glory, and often 

 attacked the peaceful Greek merchants of Mar- 

 seilles. The Greeks at last called in the assistance 



