THE BIBLE PEDIGREE OP THE NATIONS OF THE WORLD. 137 



their six " nations " — Erse, Gaelic, Welsh (or Kumric), Manx, 

 Cornish, and Breton. 



But, turning back into the heart of Europe, we shall have 

 further reason to conclude that the Kimbroi belonged to the 

 same Keltic race as the Kumri. Ctesar and Tacitus both tell 

 us that the Helvetii (the ancestors of the French-Swiss) were a 

 Gallic tribe;* and whereas the Kinibri marched apart from 

 their German allies, the Teutones, in that mighty trek of which 

 we have spoken, they induced two tribes of the Helvetii to 

 march in their own company. Why was this, unless, unlike 

 the Teutones, these could understand the same words of 

 command as themselves — unless, in short, they themselves were 

 Kelts like these Helvetians ? 



And, again, we shall hnd, partly from history and tradition 

 and partly from stronger evidence, that the Keltic race, to 

 which both Kumri and Kimbri belonged, preceded all other 

 races as colonists of Central Europe from tlie Volga to the 

 Ehine. 



It would be natural to infer, after reading of the incursions 

 of the Germans into Gaul which prevailed in Cccsar's 

 time,f that the invasion of Italy by the Gauls in the 

 sixth century B.C. and their settlement there over the whole 

 great basin of the Eiver PoJ was due to a previous retreat of 

 the rearguard of the Keltic race before German invaders ; and 

 accordingly we find a tradition expressed in Strabo (a.d. 14) 

 that the Boii, who were among those settlers of northern Italy, 

 had previously dwelt in the Hercynian Forest (a sylvan region 

 which in those days covered the centre and west of Germany 

 and the northern half of Austria), while Tacitus is both 

 positive and explicit, stating that they were driven from that 

 forest home by the Marcomanni, but had bequeathed their 

 name to it, for it was still called Boiemia (Bohemia).§ And, 

 in like manner, Tacitus tells us that the Helvetii had dwelt 

 between the Ehine, the Maine, and the Hercynian Forest until 

 they were driven southwards by the Germans. || 



Again, a century before the Christian era and perhaps right 

 up to it, there were Keltic tribes on the Ister, or Danube ; for 

 Strabo says that, before entering Helvetia, the Kimbroi had 



Caes., De Bell. Gall.^ I, 1 and Tacitus, Germ.., xxviii. 

 t Caes., De Bell. Gall, I, 31-, 32. 



I Forming Cisalpine Gaul (see Smith's Smaller Hist, of Rome, pp. 45, 

 47, 113, 114). 



§ Strabo, VII, ii, 2 (p. 292), Tacitus, Germ., xlii and xxviii. 



II Ibid. 



K 2 



