ON ETHNOLOGY. 
307 
are mere mythological concentrations and personifications of the poetical 
activity and influence of this tribe, the one, Ossian, as a representative of 
the bards who themselves belonged to it, and the other, Taluesin, as that of 
the bards of a neighbouring nation who received from the Ua-sin the im¬ 
pulse of their art and inspiration ? 
Of the other tribes belonging to the eastern migration, I still must mention 
the Belgians, whose family connexion with the eastern Celts 1ms not long 
since been placed beyond doubt by the iuteresting discovery that the Glossa 
Malperga, a body of laws collccte<l in u laud formerly inhabited by the Bel¬ 
gians, arc written in a language exhibitiug a close aflinity to the Irish, which 
must be considered the best representative «!Xtant of the language spoken 
by the eastern Celts*. 
In tracing this rapid sketch of the earliest Celtic migrations and settle- 
ments, and in endeavouriiig to unravel some of its most interesting and at 
the same time most intricate portions by an iitymological explanation of 
names of places and persons through means of the mndern Celtic, I may 
perhaps hope 1 have succeeded in impressing on the minds of iiiy hearers a 
conviction of the validity of my Jirst argument in fovour of the study of this 
language, inasmuch, namely, as it serves to elucidate ancieut and modem 
ethnology. And I would also hope, that in remitidiiig ojy hearers, while 
tracing this sketch, of the luidtitude of nations with whom the ditferent Celtic 
tribes were brought in contact during that primitire part of their history, 
1 shall have prepared Uiem for entering the more readily with me on the 
second argument in favour of that study, winch I am now about to develope. 
The knowledge of ihe modern Celtic is indispensable, to discern and appre¬ 
ciate in many of the Euro|>ean languages, both ancient and modern, that 
portion of hetcrogeiioous eli-tuonts v» hieb they liave rcceivetl from their more 
or less intimate and lasting contact with the ancient Celtic. 
It is not only in the (liti'ereut Teutonic buiguagcs Umt stjch introduction 
of Celtic elements is observable ; we find them for instance in the Latin also, 
into which tliey came through the contact of the Koraans with the Umbrians 
and the Galli, and we fi»d theui to a considGrabJc extent in the Spanish and 
French, both of which partly acquired tliem through the Latin, partly re¬ 
tained them from the couquerois of the Iberians and Aquilaniuns. But it is 
true that in the Teutonic languages the extent and influence of those Celtic 
elemenU is much more considerable than in any of the three just mentioned, 
which we may easily account for, by tJie fact that tlic Teutonic tribes found 
a Celtic population tdready established in nearly all the countries which 
they conquered, and in consequence of their intermixture with it could not 
but adopt a ^eat number of terms, and even general modes of speaking, 
conuecU^d with a civilization, which, particularly tltruugli Ute influence of 
the Druidical discipline, was theJi superior to their own. 
In undertaking, Imw ever, to discriminate tliose Celtic introdactions from 
the great genuine mass ol any other language, we must take care not to 
claim as Celtic that portion of words and grumniatical observances which 
both languages possess in common, either in consequence of their being 
both branches of the great Japhetic stock, or of the primitive unity of human 
does not, as far as I see, refer to the font of trclaod, but to a Fenish tribe which on their 
wsy thither apfiears to hare for some tijtie on the western roast of this island oppoate 
the Isle of Man ; it is there, at least, at it sei-ms to me. tlmt we must look for the Ua-Ffin men¬ 
tioned hr the Cynveirdtl (e.iy. Myr. i. p, 40, Yii Mor-ilai I'a-F^n), as well as for the land 
ArgMd, of winch the Fya, celebrated atiioofrst the twelve uivilioItigicaJ heroes of the 
Gododm (t. 803, Jlyv. p. 12), is ulil to have been the kine. 
* V. Heinrich Leo, Jlaliitrtpsche tilossc. Halle, 1842. 
x2 
