Celtic Scotland

by W. F. Skene

They shape their boats; but, strange to say,

They fit their vessels with united skins,

And often traverse the deep in a hide.

Then, after mentioning the sacred island of the Hiberni and the island of the Albiones, he adds, ‘It is customary for the people of Tartessus to trade in the bounds of the Oestrymnides;’[^[189]] and Priscianus Periegeta, who flourished in the beginning of the sixth century, calls them the Hesperides, and says that over-against the sacred promontory which men call the end of Europe lie the Hesperides, full of tin, which the strong people of the Iberi occupy.[^[190]]

If these notices show that a persuasion existed among many that the population of the Scilly Isles, Cornwall, and South Wales was Iberian, an examination of the ancient sepulchral remains in Britain gives us reason to suppose that a people possessing their physical characteristics had once spread over the whole of both of the British Isles. The latest writer on the subject thus sums up the result of the investigation into the character of these remains:—‘The materials for working out the craniology of Europe in prehistoric times do not justify any sweeping conclusions as to the distribution of the various races, but those which Dr. Thurnam has collected in Britain offer a firm basis for such an inquiry. In the numerous long barrows and chambered-gallery graves of our island, which, from the invariable absence of bronze and the frequent presence of polished stone implements, may be referred to the neolithic age, the crania belong, with scarcely an exception, to the first two of these divisions (the Dolichocephali or long skulls). In the round barrows, on the other hand, in which bronze articles are found, they belong mainly to the third division (Brachycephali or broad skulls), although some are Orthocephalous (having oval skulls). On evidence of this kind Dr. Thurnam concludes that Britain was inhabited in the neolithic age by a long-headed people, and that towards its close it was invaded by a bronze-using race, who were dominant during the bronze age. This important conclusion has been verified by nearly every discovery which has been made in this country since its publication. The long skulls graduate into the broad, the oval skulls being the intermediate forms, and this would naturally result from the intermingling of the blood of the two races.’[^[191]] Ireland presents precisely the same phenomena.[^[192]] The same writer thus sums up the result of the inquiry:—‘Dr. Thurnam was the first to recognise that the long skulls, out of the long barrows of Britain and Ireland, were of the Basque or Iberian type, and Professor Huxley holds that the river-bed skulls belong to the same race. We have therefore proofs that an Iberian or Basque population spread over the whole of Britain and Ireland in the neolithic age, inhabiting caves, and burying their dead in caves and chambered tombs, just as in the Iberian peninsula also in the neolithic age.’[^[193]]

Ethnologic traditions.

Of the Celtic race, which succeeded the Iberians in the British Isles, and whose descendants still remain here, the Romans tell us nothing, save that those in the interior of the country were believed to be indigenous, and that those on the regions bordering upon the sea which divides Britain from Gaul had passed over from the latter country; but here we have the advantage of possessing an additional element of information in their traditions. These represent, in more or less of an archaic form, the popular notions prevailing among the people themselves of their ethnology, their supposed descent, and their mutual relation to each other. They usually appear in two different shapes—one in which the tribes inhabiting the same country, but distinguished from each other by national or ethnological differences, appear as successive colonies, arriving at different times in the country from distant regions, founded either upon genuine tradition or artificially upon some fancied resemblance in name or characteristic; the other, where each race is represented by an ‘eponymus’ from whom they are supposed to have been descended, and to have derived their name, and these supposed eponymic ancestors are connected together in an artificial family, in which the paternal ancestor represents the race, and the maternal the country or city they occupy. An analysis of these legends, then, is an almost indispensable preliminary to any attempt to ascertain their true place in the ethnology of the island.

British traditions.

For the oldest forms of the British traditions we must look to Nennius. According to him, the Britons were a colony of Trojans who came from Italy, and were the first inhabitants of the island. ‘Æneas the Trojan had by Lavinia, daughter of Latinus, king of Italy, besides his son from whom the Romans descended, a younger son, Brutus, who was expelled from Italy and came to the islands of the Tyrrhene Sea. From thence he went to Gaul and built the city of the “Turones,” called Turnis. At length he came to this island, named from him Britannia, dwelt there, and filled it with his descendants.’ His account of the colonies of Picts and Scots which followed has been noticed in the preceding chapter. He then says that he had learnt another account of these Britons from the ancient books of his ancestors. According to this form, ‘the first man who came to Europe of the race of Japhet was Alanus, with his three sons, Hessitio, Armenon, and Negue. Hessitio had four sons, Francus, Romanus, Britto, and Albanus. Armenon had five sons, Gothus, Ualagothus, Gebidus, Burgoandus, and Longobardus. Negue, however, had three sons, Wandalus, Saxo, and Boguarus. From Hessitio are sprung four nations, the Franci, the Latini, the Albani, and the Britti. From Armenon five, the Goths, Walagoths, Gebiddi, Burgunds, and Longobards; and from Neguius four, the Boguarii, Vandals, Saxons, and Turingi.’ This is a rude attempt to express in this form the ethnology of Europe. We have the Britons and the people of Albania or the north represented by two brothers, Brittus and Albanus; and we have the Saxons affiliated to another ancestor. There is no appearance either in this or the previous form of ethnologic tradition of these inhabitants of Britain having been preceded by the Iberi.[^[194]]

Irish traditions.