7. Bastard, in Du Fresne, derived evidently from the Welsh word bas, shallow, and tardd, springing.

*

8. Vergobretus, according to Cæsar, was a term for the chief magistrate among the Hædui.

O'Brien, in the learned preface to his Irish Dictionary, derives this term from the Erse word breath, judgment. Fear go breith means in Irish "vir ad judicium."

The Welsh affords an equally apt etymology. Gwr, that is wr, vir; and cyvraith, judicial proceedings. Gur-gyvraith, meaning "vir ad leges," would be written in Latin Vergobretus.+

9. Calliomarchus, the plant termed Equiungula. The name is derived, according to Marcellus Burdigalensis, from "marc" equus and "cal, calus," ungula. March, equus, caled, durus, are words now extant in Welsh. Armoric kalet, Erse cala.

10. Caterva, according to Vegetius and Isidorus a word of Gallic origin. Cad and tyrva, a troop of soldiers, or a battle-troop in Welsh. The Erse has Cath, battle; but no word answering to tyrva. Torva or tyrva (turmha) answers to turma in Latin, and is the other component of caterva.

11. Rheda, a four-wheeled carriage, a cart, or small waggon. According to Quintilian, lib. i. c. 5, derived by the Romans, together with the term, from the Gauls. Described by Fortunatus, lib. ii. Carm. 20.

The etymon is in Welsh rhe, swift; whence rhedu, to run; rhed, a course; rhedeg, to run a course. Arm. redek, Erse reathaim, I run.

Both Erse and Welsh have this root, but the Welsh is nearest to the old Gaulish.

12. Candetum, a land measure of one hundred feet, in Columella. Cant, Welsh and Arm. a hundred.

The Erse is kéd. The Welsh word is plainly the etymon. 13. Tarwos Trigaranos, an inscription on a stone found A.D. 1711 in the cathedral church at Paris, representing the form

Lib. i. c. 18.

+ This etymology was pointed out to me by my late excellent friend Dr. West, of Dublin.

of an ox on which three birds are sitting. Etym. tarw, meaning bull in the Welsh and Armorican; tri, the number three, and garan, a crane. The Erse words are tarbh, tri, corr, which are much more remote from the Gaulish.

Paragraph 3.-Second result deduced from the preceding examination.

We may venture to draw from the whole of this examination some further inferences.

It appears that a very large proportion of the old Celtic words found to have entered into the composition of local names in Gaul and other countries inhabited by the Celtic race, or forming either in part or wholly the proper names or epithets of individuals, are to be recognised in the British or Welsh language, while a much smaller relative number are extant in the Gaelic or Erse. A parallel observation may be made respecting the etymons of genuine Celtic words preserved in classical authors either in terms for objects, of which the Romans happened to derive the names from the Gauls, or as epithets of Celtic gods, warriors, or magistrates. We must hence conclude that the dialect of the ancient Gauls was nearly allied to the Welsh, and much more remotely related to the Erse or Gaëlic.

It appears on the whole evident from this comparison that Strabo was correct in stating the difference between the languages of the several nations in Gaul, the Aquitani being excluded, to have been little and inconsiderable. We have reason to believe from a consideration already adverted to, that the various tribes of Gauls and Belgians mutually understood each other in conversation; and it is probable that the difference between their dialects was nearly parallel with that which subsisted between the Welsh and Cornish at the time when both these idioms were spoken in South Britain. The Welsh, which is the relic of the language of the inland Britons or Cæsar's aborigines, is most probably akin to the dialect of Gallia Celtica, and the Cornish to the idiom of the Belga, who overran the southern district of England, and probably sought refuge in the west when the Saxons

were extending themselves from the eastern part of the island.*

It may further be observed, that the etymons of several local names are not clearly discoverable in any Celtic dialect extant. In one or two instances the Teutonic languages seem to supply this defect, as in that of the numerous names ending in briga. The existence of such words in the Celtic language cannot be attributed to intermixtures of Germans and Gauls, according to the usual summary way of explaining such phenomena. It implies that many vocables were common to the languages of these two great races in ancient which are not extant in modern times.

When we consider the extreme paucity of true Celtic words expressive of ideas that denoted some progress in refinement, and compare this fact with the state of civilisation which existed in some parts, especially, of Celtic Gaul, the conviction forces itself upon us that we have extant but a very small part of the Celtic language. The ancient civilised Celts must have had vernacular words suited to their stock of ideas. They

To this conclusion my late excellent friend Dr. West, of Dublin, had been led by his learned researches into the history of the inhabitants of the British islands. His inquiries had been pursued on a different path from my own, and they had brought him to the same result.

It is very satisfactory to me to find a similar inference drawn by a writer of great research, whose work has appeared long since the above remarks were written-I allude to Dr. Lor. Diefenbach, whose treatise, entitled "Versuch einer genealogischen Geschichte der Kelten," has been published at Stuttgart in the course of the present year, 1840. He says, after adopting a different conclusion from that which I have drawn on some particulars, and especially as to the Welsh, whom he supposes to have been Belgæ: "Der Ueberblick der obigen Quellen-Aussagen zeigt uns die Unterschiede der Galli und Belgæ bey weitem nicht so stark als Cæsar's Aeusserung auf den ersten Blick vermuthen lässt. Schon bey ihm wird Galli und Gallia häufig in umfassenden Sinne gebraucht," u. s. w. Celtica, ii. p. 57.

+ Thus it is probable that the Celts had a native word for bridge, perhaps analogous to brig, and furnishing the etymon of names of towns ending in briga. The Welsh has no other word than pont, evidently Latin. If pont had been an old Celtic word we should somewhere find it in Celtic toponomy. Writers of the age of Pelloutier confounded both German and Celtic nations under one name. When this error was pointed out it became the custom to go to the other extreme. It is true that the Celtic and Teutonic languages are very distinct in structure and formation, and yet they have most extensive relations. A large proportion of roots are common to them. This subject has been discussed by Dr. J. E. Radlof, in a work entitled "Neue Untersuchungen des Keltenthumes, zur Aufhellung der Urgeschichte der Teutschen." Bonn, 1822.

probably did not supply their place, as do the modern Welsh and Irish, by a host of words borrowed from foreign languages. The natives of the British isles had but a small part of the Celtic language, as the sphere of their ideas must have been far more limited than those of the Continental Gauls. The Britons bore nearly the same relation to the Gauls, which the Lapps bear to the civilised Finns. A great part of the Celtic language is irrecoverably lost.

We must now advert to the history of those branches of the Celtic race who speak the dialects of the Erse or Gaëlic language, and principally to the Scots and Irish, the latter of whom have preserved from early times a peculiar literature. We must commence this part of our undertaking with a short survey of the history of Ireland.

SECTION XII. Of the ancient Inhabitants of Ireland.

Paragraph 1.-Of the accounts of Ireland left by the ancient writers.

Writers of the first century after the Christian era are agreed in representing the natives of Ireland as very barbarous. Strabo speaks thus of the island and its inhabitants: "There are other small islands near that of Britain, and one larger than the rest lying over against it, on the northern side, named Ierne, which is greater in length than in breadth. Concerning this island we have nothing certain to relate except that the inhabitants are more savage-ȧyptwrepo-than the Britons. They are voracious cannibals, and even think it a laudable thing to eat the dead bodies of their parents."* These stories Strabo reports, as he says, without having derived them from any witnesses worthy of confidence. Diodorus has also asserted that the Irish were man-eaters. This relation, however, would not have obtained much credit, had it not been supported by a passage in the writings of St. Jerom, in which that celebrated father of the Church declares that while he was resident in Gaul he saw human flesh eaten by

* Strabo, lib. iv. p. 201. He adds that they lived in promiscuous intercourse.

certain Scots or Attacotts. The Scots or Attacotts to whom Jerom alludes, were probably slaves or other persons who had been brought from Ireland to Gaul. That the Irish people in the time of Jerom were in general savages of a description such as this account suggests, cannot be credited.*

-

If it is true, as Strabo and Diodorus assert, that in their time the people of Ireland were very barbarous, and I suppose their testimony must be admitted, unless any evidence can be found to contradict it,—a rapid progress in civilisation must have been made during the two first centuries after the conquest of Britain by the Romans. This is evident from the brief notices to be found in Ptolemy, who describes Ireland as containing several cities. Among them were Eblana, or Dublin; Manapia, Waterford; Dunum, Down; Nagnatæ, supposed to be Limerick, which last is termed-róλiç inionpost-a distinguished or famous city. Marcianus Heracleota,‡ an industrious collector of geographical information extant in his time,—which was between the age of Ptolemy and the building of Constantinople, therefore long before the time of Jerom,-describes Ireland as containing sixteen nations-0v-or tribes, and eleven famous cities—πόλεις ἐπισήμους. As early as the fourth century, the Irish people are said to have had possession of the Isle of Man, which implies the previous acquisition of some maritime power. This is probably the real era of the monuments of pagan antiquity in Ireland which have excited so much interest among the antiquarians of that and other countries; for it is scarcely possible, if Ireland had been civilized by earlier colonies from Phoenice, or Carthage, || or Spain, that all

* "Cum ipse adolescentulus in Galliâ viderim Scotos [or Attacottos], gentem Britannicam humanis vesci carnibus : et cum per silvas porcorum greges et armentorum pecudumque reperiant, puerorum nates et feminarum papillas solere abscindere, et has solas ciborum delicias arbitrari." (Hieron. Op. tom. ii. p. 75.)

Claud. Ptol. Geog. tab. 1. See some excellent remarks in Mr. Turner's History of England, Reign of Henry II.

‡ Marcian. Heracl. Periplus. Hudson. tom. i. p. 58.

§ Marcian. Heracleot. Dodwell supposes that Marcianus wrote in the third century. Until some Phoenician inscription shall be found in Ireland-a discovery which, after so much diligent research set on foot by the learned antiquarians of that country, may well be despaired of,-the Phoenician colonisation of that island will rest on no better ground or proof than the supposed settlements of Phoenicians

t