Mr Cull on the recent Progress of Ethnology. 11 



1. The Umbrians, who may be deemed to be the earliest 

 known inhabitants of North Italy, i. e., of nearly all Italy 

 lying between the Alps and the Tiber. 



2. The Etruscans, who at a remote period dispossessed the 

 Umbrians of a great part of their territory: they called 

 themselves Rhasena. 



3. The population of Italy south of the Tiber consisted 

 of several nations, termed. Siculi, CEnotrians, Aborigines, 

 Latins, Sabines, Opici or Ausones. 



Dr Donaldson's view is, that the Etruscan language is in 

 part a Pelasgian idiom, more or less corrupted by contact 

 with the Umbrian, and in part a relic of the oldest Low 

 German or Scandinavian. 



Scholars in general deem the Etruscan to be a composite 

 language. Dr Lepsius adduced evidence to support his view 

 that the Etruscans were Tyrrhenians or Pelasgians, who in- 

 vaded Italy from the north-east, conquered the Umbrians, 

 and took possession of the western part of the district for- 

 merly occupied by that people. Dr Donaldson claims to 

 have discovered a Scandinavian element in the Etruscan lan- 

 guage. The evidence, however, which is adduced in support 

 of the existence of such an element is considered by high 

 philological authorities to be as yet unsatisfactory ; and it 

 appears that our knowledge of the Etruscan language is 

 nearly where Niebuhr left it, viz. that aifil ril means viosit 

 annos. 



Professor Newman in his Regal Rome, an Introduction 

 to Roman History, has ably stated the leading characters 

 of the Ethnography of ancient Italy. Professor Newman 

 shewed years ago, Classical Museum, vol. vi., that even 

 Cicero 1 s Latin abounds with intrusive Keltic elements ; and 

 especially that the Sabine was related to the Gaelic. He 

 considers (" Regal Rome," p. 18), that the primitive Latin 

 must have derived its Keltic infusion through the Umbrian. 

 Muller, as quoted by Prichard, ohserves, that words belong- 

 ing to the barbaric portion of the Latin language abound in 

 the Eugubian tables, which are Umbrian. Yet he admits 

 that the dialect of these tables displays considerable analogies 

 with the Greek. And Grotefend had long ago shewn that 



