By the Rev. J. L. Ross. 



227 



or Cimbri, from a German or Teutonic word signifying a warrior, 

 or warlike. The ancient writers have universally described the 

 Cimbri as a tall, gigantic, and brave people, and Caesar describes 

 them as being originally equally warlike and successful as the Gauls, 

 or the principal body of the Celtic or Phoenician race. Whitaker 

 considers that the "names Celtae, Galatae, and Gauls belong to 

 the Gael/' or the Phoenician race; but as the languages of the 

 Cymry and Gael are perfectly distinct, they must be independent 

 nations ; just on the same principle that the Tyrrheni and Pelasgi 

 were distinct people. His language is as follows : — If natural 

 affinity produces similarity of language, the reverse produces diver- 

 sity of language ; on this principle I am persuaded that the Pelasgi 

 are a different people from the "Tyrrhenians." From this and 

 circumstances of a kindred nature, Whitaker was convinced that the 

 Cymri, and Gauls or Celtae are distinct nations, and had arrived by 

 different routes into Britain ; " the Cimbri," he says, " from the 

 north, and the Gael by a route to the south of Mount Hcemus and 

 the Alps." The Ecclesiastical historian, Bede, is also of opinion 

 that the Cimbri came to Caledonia or Scotland from Scythia in 

 Germany. 



Sir W. Betham has given several pedigrees of the Celtic and 

 Gothic nations, and among others, one in relation to the Cimbri, 

 which deserves, he conceives, consideration. Tlie Cimbri were 

 a nation from the North of Europe, who inhabited Jutland, or 

 the Cimbric Chersonesus. There were two great divisions of this 

 race, the Caledonian Cymbri who peopled the British Islands and 

 were afterwards called Picts, and the Cymbri who invaded Gaul, 

 and were destroyed by the Roman General Marius, B.C. 103. 



" Plutarch (says Mr. Humphrey Lloyd 1 ) in his history of Marius 

 affirmeth, that the Cymbri departed out of a far country, and that 

 it was not known whence they came, nor whither they went, but, 

 like clouds, they issued into France and Italy with the Almayns. 

 Whereupon the Homans supposed that they had been Germans, 

 because they had big bodies, with sharp and horrible eyes. So 

 much he. Since then he hath left their origin unknown ; and 



1 Breviary of Great Britain. 



