RECORDS OF THE BRITISH CELTS.
Dunlap, Iowa.
Had the Celts, at the time of the invasion by Julius Cæsar of what is now England and Wales, any records by which their origin could be traced?
J. H. G. Rogers.
Answer.—That they had any written records there is great reason to doubt, although there are inscriptions on certain rude stone monuments in parts of Wales, as in the southeastern counties of Munster, Ireland, consisting of long and short lines, known as Ogamic characters, the antiquity of which is not well determined. As far as deciphered, these inscriptions throw no direct light upon the origin of the Celtic race. Their spoken language, reduced to writing after the introduction of Christianity, is the only key of any importance to their origin. This language plainly marks them as an early offshoot of the Aryan family, the common Asiatic stock from which all the ruling races of Europe have descended. The descriptions left by the Romans of the aborigines of Britain at the time of the Roman conquest represent them as fierce, cruel barbarians. Neither Cæsar’s Commentaries nor the writings of Tacitus and other historians of the period of the Roman domination convey evidence that the Britons had any knowledge of letters until the Roman and Greek characters were taught them. Neither do these historians preserve any oral traditions of the British bards or druids calculated to shed much light upon the early history of the Celtic race.
REPUDIATING STATES.
Bement, Ill.
Name the States which have repudiated their debts, in whole or in part, and tell what party was responsible for the act in every case.