ON ETHNOLOGY. 
303 
extending from the pillars of Hercules to Asia Minor and beyond the Caspian, 
and from the banks of the Tiber to the Ultima Thule of Scotland and 
(irecniand. And this considerable portion of the world, as m’cII as the 
historical records referring to it, the Celtic nation has left marked with a 
long series of names both of places and jwrsotu, which only become intelligi¬ 
ble, in their fall import, by a comparison with the nuiderii Cidtic. 
I beg leave here to submit to this meeting iu a few words iny opinion on 
the diiTereiit lines of migration by which 1 conceive the Celtic race have pro¬ 
ceeded from Asia to Europe, and finally to thb country, and on the intimate 
cirnnccUon which seems to exist between the difi'oroticu of tliuse lines and 
the great division of the whole race into two separate branches, correspond¬ 
ing with the two great dialects of modern Celtic, namily, the Gallic and the 
Gaelic branch. Although itdoes not lie withiu the plan of my discourse to give 
that opinion, which Is the result of a long uud cotiscientioiis comparative ex- 
ftininotiou of the Celtic national reconU extant, supported by all the arguments 
necessary to prove it, yet 1 have thought proper to introduce it hero in a sum¬ 
mary way as a sort of basui for the puiloiogical views I uni more particularly 
about to develope. This sketch of tho history of Celtic migration will at the 
same time afford an opportunity, by the introduction of the etymology of 
several of the names which we shall have occasion to mention, of deinon- 
•tratiug the importance wltlch wc attribute to the study of the Celtic lan¬ 
guage with reference to anciont and modern ulhnogrnpliy. 
It seems to me, then, diut tlic Celtic natioti irunsportcd itself from Asia, 
and more particularly from Asiatic Scythia, to Europe and to this country 
by two principal routes, which it rwiuntd at difTerfUit epochs, and thus formed 
two great streams of migration llowiiig as it were periodically. 'I'lie one, in 
1 south-western direction, prucotnliiig through Syria nnd Egypt and thence 
along tlie iiortliem coast of Africa, reached Emojrcat the Pillars of Hercules, 
and passing on through Spain to Gaul here divided itself into three branches, 
the northern of which terminated In Great Britain and Ireland, the southern 
in Italy, and the eastern, running along tiie Alps and the Danube, tenninated 
ooly near the Black Sea, not far from the point where the whole stream is 
likely to Jiave originated. The other great strram, proceeding in a more 
direct line, reached Europe at its eastern limit, and passing through European 
ScTthia, and from thence partly tlirough Scandinavia, partly along the 
Baltic, through Prussia (the roleiui of the Sagas and Pwyl of the Triads), 
and through Northern Gcrnian}*, reached this country and hence the more 
western and northern islands across the German Ocean or Aojry sea {Mor 
hinxk), 
or these two streams ur lines of Celtic migration, wJiicIi, with reference to 
Uii» country, we may distinguish by the names of the rm/tTw, nnd mAft-rr* stream, 
the former, although the Icsa direct, srenis to be the more micient in history, 
gail to have reached tliis country several centuries beCore the other. The 
principal nations belonging to it are the KArnr of Spain (to whom tJiisnarae 
), 4 rticularly refers) aiiil the Galli, the latter being the parent stock of the 
three tribes whicii successively posseswed this island anil successively be- 
»rt,wftl upon it tlie three uanies by which it is mentioned in the records of 
«liii*ical and national literature. Each of these names corresponds with that 
of the tribe itself, both being taken from the chief god worshipped by each 
tribe, on whom they always bestowed a twofold character, one general, as 
god of the sun, and one special, as their own warlike leailer aud protector— 
tbeir heros eponpnus. These tliree tribes are the following :— 
lit. The Alteani ( Aluuni Alaui), who took Uieir name from their god Alw, 
