(1) THEIR GENERAL HISTORY.
Three or four centuries
before Christ, when the history of Western Europe is slowly emerging
from obscurity, we find a people, named the Celts, in possession of the
vast extent of territory that stretches from the Adriatic and Upper
Danube to the Western Ocean, and embraces the British Isles. The
northern boundary of the Celts was the Rhine and Mid-Germany, and they
extended on the south as far as Central Spain, and the range of the
Apennines in Italy. Contrary to the general tendency of early European
nations to move westward, the Celts are then found to be already surging
eastward, repelled by the impassable Atlantic; for, as Calgacus said to
his Caledonians, there was now no land beyond—nothing save the waves and
the rocks. Their history, till the second century before our era,
presents little but a series of eastward eruptions—“tumults,” the Romans
called them, whereby over-populous districts were, freed of their
surplus population. Now and again they would pour through the passes of
the Alps, and in a strong compact body make their way to Tuscany and
Mid-Italy, striking terror into every Italian tribe, and into Rome as
much as any of the rest. It is, indeed, with a great invasion of the Gauls that authentic Roman history begins, for the Gauls in 390 B.C.
took and sacked the town of Rome itself, doubtless destroying all older
records of its history. Another great invasion of the Gauls was made
into Greece in 280 B.C., in which the temple of Delphi was taken and
pillaged; and so compact and well arranged was this body of invaders
that they passed over to Asia Minor, overran it, and after various ups
and downs settled finally, about 230 B.C., to the limits of the province
of Galatia. These Gauls of Asia Minor are the people whom St Paul
addressed in his epistle to the “Galatians.” In later times they were
called Gallo-Graecians, from their mixture with Greeks, but they appear
to have preserved their language till the fourth century of our era, for
St Jerome tells us their dialect was like that spoken by the Treviri of
northern Gaul. Their customs and peculiarities of temperament, as we
gather these from the historians and from St Paul, were thoroughly
“Celtic.” From the end of the third century before Christ, the history
of the Celtic people is everywhere one of loss; the tide of invasion was
then successfully turned against-them. “They went to the war, but they
always fellso sings the last of the Feni, the warrior bard who typifies
the fate of his race. The Celts were excellent as invaders, though poor
colonisers; but against invasion they were most unsuccessful. The
centrifugal tendency so apparent in the race was not permitted to find
scope in an enemy’s country; but in their own country they could not,
from mutual jealousy and selfishness, unite for any length of time
against the invader. For instance, the Belgae, instead of keeping banded
together against Csesar, and unitedly repelling him, preferred to return
each tribe to their own territories, and there await until he attacked
some neighbouring tribe, when they intended to come to their assistance.
“Seldom is it,” says Tacitus, “that two or three states meet together to
ward off the common danger. Thus, while they fight singly, all are
conquered.” After the first Punic war, the Romans made an effort to
subdue their troublesome neighbours in the basin of the Po in North
Italy. In the course of four years, from 225 to 222 B.C., the whole
country was overrun and converted into a Roman province. But it was only
after the second Punic war, and on the final conquest of the Borin 191,
that Gallia Cisalpina became a real Roman province. The Celts of Spain,
known better as the Celtiberi—Celts and Iberians—were conquered during
the second Punic war, but, being a brave and warlike people, they kept
up rebellions, and defied Rome, until, with the fall of Numantia in B.C.
134, they were completely subdued. The Gauls of France were not attacked
by the Romans until they had assured their power in the East, in Africa,
and in Spain. In B.C. 125 the consul Fulvius Flaccus began the reduction
of the Salluvii around Massilia, and in a few years they were subdued,
and the Allobroges next attacked. The south of Gaul was by the year 118
b.c. made into a province. Matters, however, remained in this state till
the advent of Julius Caesar in 58 B.C. lie was bold enough to attempt
the subjugation of Gaul, and in eight years he accomplished his object.
All Gaul south of the Rhine was made into a Roman province, and tribute
was exacted from the nearest British tribes. In A.D. 43, the conquest of
Britain, commenced by Cesar, was resumed and carried on until by the
year 80 all England and Scotland, as far as the Firth of Forth, were
reduced into a Roman province. The Celts of Ireland and Northern
Scotland were never reduced by the Romans. Under the sway of the Romans
the Celtic dialects of Spain and Gaul gradually gave way before the
Latin, though not without leaving their marks on the resulting Romance
languages that arose on the ruins of the Roman empire. The Gaulish
appears never to have died out in Western France, for between the native
speakers of it in the 4th and 5th centuries and the immigrants from
Britain, it succeeded in maintaining its ground through every chance and
change, and is even now in France the speech of a million and a quarter
people—the inhabitants of Britanny. How the Romanised Britons were
conquered by the English, and driven into the western corners of the
land—Cornwall, Wales, and Strathclyde, until now only Wales remains a
British-speaking people, containing a million people who can speak or
use a Celtic speech ; how Ireland was conquered by the Anglo-Celts in
the 12th century, and the ancient language has been pushed into the
West, so that now only 870 thousand can speak and use the Gaelic; how in
Scotland the ancient language of Caledonia has been gradually shrinking
until only a quarter of a million in the Highlands speak it, and only
310 thousand all over Scotland can speak or use it; and how thus only
three and a-half millions of people in Europe speak the Celtic language,
which two thousand years ago covered most of Western Europe,—all this
belongs to the history, not of the ancient, but of the modern Celt.
From the consideration of
what history has to say of the Celtic nations, let us pass to what
science has proved in regard to Celtic origins and culture. It was well
on in this century before the relationship of the Celtic race to the
rest of the European races was put on a firm scientific basis, and it is
only a generation since that English writers accepted the fact of
distant cousinship with the Celt. The sciences to which appeal must be
made are those that deal with antiquities, culture, and language. It is
really the science of language that has enabled the Celt to take his
place within the sacred ring of European kinship ; the evidence of
words, roots, and inflections has been too patent and convincing for
even the grudging Saxon to reject. With the exception of the Turks,
Hungarians, Basques, and Finns with Lapps and Esthonians, the European
nations are proved linguistically to be of the same race. Within that
extensive family circle must also be embraced the Hindoos, Afghans,
Persians, and Armenians; and the whole race so included has been
variously named the Indo-European, Indo-Celtic, Indo-Germanic, and the
Aryan race. As the last term is the most convenient, it shall be adopted
here. It is by a comparison of the vocabularies and grammatical forms of
the languages of these various races that scientists have come to the
conclusion that, linguistically at least, these nations are descended
from a common Aryan stock. Radical elements expressing such objects and
relations as father, mother, brother, sister, wife, daughter,
daughter-in-law; cow, dog, horse, cattle, ox; corn, mill; earth, sky,
water, star; gold, silver, metal; house, door, household, clan, king;
god, man, holiness, goodness, baseness, badness) law, right; war,
hunting; wood, tree; various kinds of trees, flowers, birds, and beasts;
weaving, wool, clothes; honey, flesh, food, and hundreds more, to which
may be added the names of spring and summer, moon, sun, the numerals as
far as one hundred. The Aryans were high in the barbaric stage of
culture — barbaric as opposed on the one hand to civilised culture, and
on the other to the savage stage. They had regular marriage on the
monogamic principle; the position of woman was therefore high ; grades
of kinship were marked ; and, indeed, the idea of “family” was
altogether highly developed. The state seems to have been of the
patriarchal type—an enlarged family in idea; there were kings, nobles,
council, and laws. Houses, hamlets, roads or paths, and waggons existed.
Sheep, oxen, and all domestic cattle were possessed and named.
Agriculture existed, and various kinds of corn, fruits, and trees were
known and used. Gold, silver, and copper or bronze were known, but
evidently not iron; and implements of war and the chase were made of the
metals known—sword, and spear, and plough. Polytheism was the form of
religious belief, wherein the powers of nature were worshipped as
deities in anthropomorphic form. When or where this nation lived cannot
well be known, but the general idea is that it lived over three thousand
B.C. in Western Asia. In any case, it split up into many leading
branches, variously estimated at seven, eight, and ten. Schleicher and
Fick have attempted to show how this process occurred, and to trace the
relationship of the various branches among themselves. According to
them, the Aryan race first divided into the Asiatic and European groups.
The Asiatic subsequently subdivided into the Indian (ancient Sanskrit
and modern Indian dialects), and the Iranian or Persian Family (ancient
Zeud and Persian, and the modem dialects of Afghanistan, Persia, &c.)
The European branch, which developed some features of common culture
after their separation from the Asiatic branch, split up into two
divisions, South European and North European. The latter branch again
produced the great Teutonic and Slavonic branches; while the former
diverged into the Greek, Roman, and Celtic raccs. The place of Celtic in
this family scheme was for long doubtful, and a hot dispute arose
between the leading philologist as to whether the Celtic was more allied
to the Latin than it was to the Germanic branch. Ebel held that the
Celtic belonged to the Germanic branch, on the ground that the number of
diphthongs was the same in each, and that “ a pervading analogy in the
Slavonian, Teutonic, and both branches of the Celtic ” exists, evidenced
by the use of time particles, like do and ro in Celtic, and the German
ge, and strengthened also by other minor details. But against this
Schleicher was able to produce some formidable analogies between Celtic
and Latin, such as (1) the general resemblance in declension; (2) the
future in b or f (amabo of Lat. and old Irish carfa, no charub); and (3)
the passive in r (fertur of Lat., and old Irish carthir). The general
belief now is that Celtic and Latin are much more allied to each other
than either is to Germanic, or any other tongue. But the more advanced
philologists are inclined to scout the idea of “genealogy” as
unscientific, or at least as too narrow, and a system of grouping merely
is adopted. But for popular purposes the genealogical idea is
undoubtedly scientific enough, and certainly more easy to understand and
remember. The following table presents the latest phase of the genealogy
of the Aryan tongues :—
The discussion as to
when, how, and where the Aryan races entered Europe first— if, indeed,
they are not originally European —is a highly speculative subject. Fick
thinks that they entered Europe along the north of the Caspian and Black
Seas, and settled down on the Danube. The Graeco-Italo-Celtic branch was
settled on the Upper Danube, until a date, says M. D’Arbois De
Jubainville, sufficiently near, perhaps, the 15th century before Christ.
At this date he sends the Hellenic race down to Epirus, and afterwards
to both coasts of the iEgean Sea. The upper Danube was Celtic until it
was engulfed in the Empire of Rome. Plutarch appears to refer to the
original invasion of Gaul by the Celts, and this M. De Jubainville
thinks took place some seven centuries before Christ, a date that seems
to be rather too late, considering that Massilia was founded about 600
B.C. The Italic race had a good while before this left the Celts, and
taken a southerly direction, the Etruscans settling in their territory
about 992 B.C. Passing from this speculation to ground more assured, we
know from archaeological study that other races existed in Europe
previous to the Celts. The contents of Neolithic and Bronze-Age barrows
prove the existence of at least two pre-Aryan races, differing much in
physique and culture from the type regarded as Aryan. For the European
Aryans are regarded as tall, fair-liaired, straight-featured, and
dolicho-cephalic or long-headed ; while the barrows present us with two
other types—a small, evidently darkskinned, long-headed race, and
another race—fair, tall, rough-featured, and round-headed. The
dark-skinned race, called by the ethnologists Iberian, was in its Stone
Age for the most part : while the round-headed race, named Finnish or
Ugrian, belonged to the Bronze Age. “It seems to be certain,” says Mr
Elton, “that some great proportion of the population of the Western
Countries is connected by actual descent with the pre-Celtic occupants
of Europe; and it is regarded as highly probable that one branch or
layer of these earlier inhabitants should be attributed to that Ugrian
stock, which comprises the Quains, Finns, Magyars, Esthonians, Livonians,
and several kindred tribes whose territories abut upon the Baltic, the
White Sea, and the Volga.” Everything points to Aquitania, the Pyrennees
district, and a good part of Spain having been possessed by the older or
Iberian race, and their language may now remain in the modern Basque. It
is from this Spanish connection that they are named Iberian. Tacitus
informs us that the inhabitants of the Severn valley in Wales were
evidently of Iberian descent. “The dark complexion of the Silures,” he
says, “ their usually curly hair, and the fact that Spain is the
opposite shore (!) to them, are evidence that Iberians of a former date
crossed over and occupied these parts.” Now the importance of clearly
grasping the fact that the Celtic races conquered and exterminated, or,
more often, absorbed the previous races, cannot be over-estimated. For
the abuse of national names like Celtic, in indiscriminately applying
them for archaeological or political purposes to races that are clearly
very much mixed in blood, is to be deplored for the sake of sound
science and of political justice. Aryan, Teutonic, or Celtic can apply
primarily only to language and culture ; for the Aryans must have
absorbed most of the previous population. And this previous population
has demonstrably influenced the physique of the Aryan, while traces of
its influence can be shown to exist in the customs, language, and
characteristics of the now or previously existing Aryan races.
Undoubtedly the most Celtic country in Europe is France; George Long
estimated its present “Celticity” at 19-20ths of the population—an
estimate which is doubtless far too high, considering the absorption of
the non-Aryan Aquitanians, and the intrusion of the non-Celtic Romans,
Franks, and Normans. Nevertheless, France, in modem times, represents
fully the virtues and the weaknesses which ancient and modem writers
have recognised as inherent in the Celtic character. “Idealism,” Matthew
Arnold calls the general characteristic of the Celt, “showing itself,”
as Professor Geddes says, “in the disposition to make the future or the
past more important than the present; to gild the horizon with a golden
age in the far past, as do the Utopian Conservatives; or in the remote
future, as do the equally Utopian Revolutionists.” Roman writers notice
their wonderful quickness of apprehension, their great craving for
knowledge, and their impressibility. They were generous to a degree,
loyal to their own chiefs, prompt in action, but incapable of sustained
effort or united action. Caesar is never tired of speaking of their
changeableness and their “celerity,” both physical and mental, while
Livy speaks of their unrestrained indignation and impetuosity. Added to
this, they were a race much given to superstition and religious
observance. But many of these qualities are virtues: “In their pure and
unsophisticated condition,” says Professor Geddes, “they have been in
the main distinguished by these four qualities more particularly,
Reverence religiously, devoted Faithfulness politically, Politeness or
civility socially, and Spirit or, as the French would call it. Esprit
universally.” If we compare the four or five chief Celtic races that
remain, we shall find much apparent and much real diversity hiding some
remarkable features of agreement. The religious character of the Celt is
strong in Brittany, Wales, and the Highlands; in France, generally, and
in Ireland, the emotion exists along with more of a critical and
humorous spirit. Wit and genius are more sparkling in Ireland and
France, while loyalty to chiefs and exploded causes is characteristic of
the Highlands and Ireland. The diversities among these branches of the
Celtic races—and they are numerous, so numerous as to make the ordinary
political meaning of “Celtic” inapplicable to the Highlands— must arise
from mixture of races. The Welsh have a basis of Iberian and
Gaelic-Irish, and an intrusion of English among them. The Irish have
Iberians in the South, and Finns in the North for basis, generally
speaking, while Danes, English, and Scotch have intruded upon them; so
that in some of the disaffected parts it is clear that, not Celtic, but
Teutonic blood is responsible for the persistency and atrocity of their
conduct. In the Highlands, the basis is the non-Aryan Piet, with here
and there a dash of the Iberian, while the Celt has been intruded upon
by the Norseman and the Englishman.
The oldest mention we
have of the Celts is in Herodotus, in the 5th century B.C. “For the
River Istros,” says he, “from its source among Celts, and the city
Pyrene, flows dividing Europe in the middle. The Celts (Keltoi) are
outside the Pillars of Hercules, and border on the Kynesii, who dwell
furthest west of the inhabitants of Europe.” Their next appearance in a
historical work is in Xenophon, who mentions the Celts as mercenaries
with Dionysius of Syracuse, in 368, B.C. “The ships brought Keltoi and
Iberes.” Strabo tells us that Ephorus (in the second half of the 4th
century B.C.) exaggerates the size of Celtica, “including in it what we
now call Iberia, as far as Gadeira,” and in another place Ephorus
represents them as possessing the part of the world lying between the
setting of summer and the setting of winter. Pytheas actually visited
the West and North, and was in Britain himself in the 4th century B.C.,
but unfortunately his narrative has been lost, appearing only in
fragments, which are often subjected to the adverse criticism of the
ancients as fables, though now they are known to be the truth. Aristotle
knew about the Celts; he mentions them as being said to fear “neither
earthquake nor floods,” as putting but little clothing on their
children, and as having so cold a country, the Celts above Iberia, that
the ass does not thrive there. He also heard of Rome having been taken
by the Celts, Plutarch tells us. The Periplus of Scylax, about 335 B.C.,
represents the Celts as established at the head of the Adriatic, and we
are told by Ptolemy, Alexander’s General, as quoted by Strabo, that,
while Alexander was operating against the Danubian tribes, “ the Celts
who dwell on the Adriatic came to Alexander, for the purpose of making a
treaty of friendship and mutual hospitality, and that the king received
them in a friendly way and asked them, while drinking, what might be the
chief object of their dread, supposing that they would say it was he;
but that they replied, it was no man, only they felt some alarm lest the
heavens should sometime or other fall on them, but that they valued the
friendship of such a man as him above everything.” Hitherto, the name
Celt or Keltos was the only one used, but after the invasion into Greece
in 279 B.C., a new name makes its appearance. This name is Galatae. It
first appears in two epitaphs on Grecian youths slain in the war with
the Celts in 279. Timaeus speaks of the country of “Galatia, named after
Galates, son of Cyclops and Galatia,” and it seems that he rendered the
name Galatae popular, for after this period it is the favourite Greek
name. Polybius, a Greek writer of the second century B.C., uses the name
Keltos for the ancient Celts, and the name Galatae he rather applies to
the Celts in their contact with Rome in the third and second centuries.
The favourite Roman name was Galli, which included the inhabitants of
Gallia, the Celts of Spain, and those of Galatia. Caesar, however, tells
us that Gaul was divided into three parts: the Aquitanians were in the
south, the Belgae in the north, and in the middle the Gauls, as the
Romans called them, but they called themselves Celtae. Here the term
“Gauls” applies only to one branch of the Celtic people, but this
limited use of the name was not recognised even by Ciesar himself.
Diodorus Siculus, Ctesar’s contemporaiy, who wrote in Greek, calls the
country north of Massilia, from the Alps to the Pyrennees, Celtica (Cfesar’s
“Gauls” and Aquitania),and the people of the country north of this
Celtica along the Atlantic and the Hercynian Forest on to Scythia, are
called Galatae. “The Romans call all these collectively Gauls.” Diodorus
gives us a complete version of the myth that Timaeus evidently told in
full. Hercules, when on his expedition against Geryon, turned aside into
Gaul, founded there Alesia, and married a haughty Gaulish dame, who gave
birth to a son named Galates. This Galates surpassed all his countrymen
in valour and strength, and obtaining by his warlike exploits a wide
fame and sway, he gave his subjects and his country his own name to
bear, the one to be known as Galatia, and the others as Galatae.
Pausanias, a writer of the second century of our era says, in
explanation of the use of the names Celt and Galatae: “It was late
before it became the habit to call them Galatae ; for Celtic was their
name of old, both among themselves and other people.”
The three names which we
have for this ancient people are therefore Keltoi or Celtae, Galatai and
Galli. Of these Celti is two centuries older than Galatae in use. The
derivation of Celt is not finally decided. Gluck, in his work on the
Celtic Names in Caesar, suggests that the root is seen in Latin celsus,
“high,” to which Lithuanian keltas, of Jike meaning and derivation, may
be added. Allied to this root is the English word “ hill.” This is the
best derivation of the word. Professor Rhys suggested in his “Celtic
Britain” a connection with Old Norse “hildr,” war, Bel-lona, but he has
now withdrawn it on discovering that the old Irish and Gaelic word
clicith (war) is the proper representative of hildr. The names Galatae
and Galli are evidently connected, and as Windisch says, no doubt of
Celtic origin. The form Galatae is oldest and nearest the true form. It
answers to the old Irish word gxldae, brave; for the form galdae points
to a primitive form galatias. The root is gal, of old Irish, and goil of
Gaelic, which signifies bravery.
(2) MANNERS AND CUSTOMS OF
THE ANCIENT CEI.TS.
Our sources of
information in regard to the manners and customs of the Celts are
threefold :—(1), The historians of Greece and Rome have left some
accounts of them, short and rather meagre; (2), Archaeology throws some
light on Gaulish customs and life; we can, for instance, verify the fact
of the tallness of person of the Gauls from their skeletons found in
their tombs, and we have remains of their weapons, implements, coins,
statues, &c.; and (3), we know their Aryan descent, and can steady our
inquiry by the light derived from the customs and life of other Aryan
nations, while mediaeval and modern Celtic customs and manners will give
much material help.
It is purely with the
first source that this paper will deal, and the writers will be quoted
in extenso, as far as possible, for, as some of the authors to be quoted
are not easy of access, and some remain in the obscurity of their
original, more material good to other inquirers will be done by a full
and accurate quotation, than by a garbled and ex parte statement. And
first in the order of time comes Polybius, who says (Book II., cap. 15,
&c.):—
“In regard to the
cheapness and abundance of food [in Gaul], one may most accurately
understand it from this :—Travellers through the country in putting up
at an inn, do not bargain about the details of their bill, but ask at
how much they put up a man. The innkeepers undertake, for the most part,
to do everything that is absolutely necessary for half an as, that is,
the fourth of an obol, and they rarely exceed that. The numbers of the
men, the size and beauty of their persons, and further, their daring in
war, can be understood clearly from the deeds they accomplished.
. . . They dwell in
villages that are uinvalled, and they have no other furniture. For as
they slept on straw and ate flesh, and besides practiced nothing else
but warlike matters and agriculture, they led a simple life, no other
knowledge or art being known among them at all. The property of the
individual lay in cattle and in gold, because these alone can be easily
moved anywhere and transferred to any place they like. They spend very
much trouble on forming companionships or clubs, because he is the most
feared and most powerful among them who appears to have the most
individuals to dance attendance on him and act as hangers-on. . . . But
on returning home they quarrelled over the booty captured, and
consequently lost a great part of it and of their army. That is a common
practice with the Gauls, whenever they appropriate anything belonging to
others, caused more especially through drinking and eating to excess. .
. . The Insubres and the Boii advanced dressed in trousers and saga
(cloaks), but the Gfesatfe threw these away . . . and because the
Gaulish shield cannot cover a man, the larger and the more unprotected
their persons were the less the weapons missed their purpose.
. . . Their swords are so
fashioned that they deliver one good cutting stroke, but at once become
blunt and bent, so that unless the soldier has time to straighten the
sword with his foot and the ground, it is incapable of striking another
blow. . . .
The Romans, coming to
close quarters, deprived the Gauls of using their swords for slashing,
for which they are adapted, for their swords want points. . . . The
Gauls were fiercest in the first onset in courage . . . and are fickle.”
The next writer we shall
quote is Posidonius, the Stoic, who lived in the first decades of the
first century before Christ. He was a great traveller, and had an
extensive knowledge of the Western European nations. His works have not
come down to us, but fortunately Athenreus, a compiler of the 3rd
century of our era, quotes him and others in their own words in a sort
of ana book, and the following are his extracts from Posidonius in
regard to the Celts : —
“The Celti have their
food placed before them as they sit on grass, on tables made of wood,
raised a very little above the ground. Their food consists of a few
loaves and a good deal of meat served in water, and roasted on the coals
or on spits. They eat their food in a cleanly manner enough, but
lion-fashion they take up whole joints in their hands and gnaw at them.
And if there is any bit hard to tear away, they cut it off with a small
knife which they have sheathed in a private depository. Those who live
by the rivers and by the Atlantic and Mediterranean eat also fish, and
these, too, roasted with salt and vinegar and cummin. This they also
throw into their drink. Oil they do not use on account of its scarcity,
and, because they are not used to it, it seems nauseous to them. When
many of them eat together they sit in a circle, and the bravest man is
in the middle, like the coryphaeus of a chorus, whether excelling the
rest on account of his military skill or birth or riches. Beside him is
the entertainer, and then on each side the rest of the guests sit in
regular order according to their position. And those that bear their
shields—large, oblong ones—stand behind them, and their spear-bearers
sit down opposite in a circle, and feast in the same way as their
masters. The cup-bearrers bring round the drink in vessels like beakers,
either of earthenware or silver. And the platters upon which they have
their bread placed before them are of the same materials; but some have
brazen platters, and others wooden or wicker ones. And the liquor which
is drunk is, among the rich, wine, brought from Italy and Massilia. And
it is unmixed, but at times a little water is mixed with it. Among the
poorer classes, however, the drink is a beer made of wheat prepared with
honey, and with the majority the beer alone is the beverage. It is
called korma. And they all drink it out of the same cup in small
draughts of not more than a glassful at a time, but they take frequent
draughts. And a slave carries the liquor round, beginning from right to
left. That is the way they are waited upon, and they worship their gods
turning to their right hand.” Another quotation from Posidonius,
apparently following closely the one above, says :—“The Celts at times
tight single combats at their meals. For being assembled under arms,
they spar and wrestle with each other, and at times go so far as
wounding. And getting angry from this, they go on even to slaughter, if
the bystanders do not check them. In olden times,” he says, “a
hind-quarter was put before them, the thigh flesh of which the bravest
man took; but if any one else laid claim to it, they got up and fought
the duel to death. Others, at a public entertainment (theatron), accept
a sum of silver or gold—some a number of jars of wine, and, after taking
pledges for the giving of them and bequeathing them to their nearest
friends, lie down on their backs at full length on their long shields,
and some bystander with a sword cuts their throat.” Of the bards,
Posidonius says :—“The Celts, even when they make war, take about with
them companions, whom they call ‘ parasites.’ These celebrate their
praises not only before large companies assembled together, but also
before private individuals who are willing to listen. Their music and
song come from men called bards (bardoi), and they are poets who recite
praises with song.” And it is in this connection, probably, that
Posidonius tells of the magnificence of Luernius, the father of Bityis,
King of the Arverni, who was subdued by the Romans in 121 B.C., for he,
“aiming at becoming leader of the populace, used to drive in a chariot
over the plains, and scatter gold and silver among the myriads of Celts
who followed him.” He built a place twelve furlongs every way, which he
filled with winepresses and eatables, where for many days anybody might
go and revel gratis. “ And, once, when he had issued beforehand
invitations to a banquet, one of the poets of the ‘ barbarians,’ coming
too late, met him on the way, extolled his magnificence in a hymn, and
bewailed his own ill fortune for being too late. Luernius, being
gratified, asked for a purse of gold and threw it to him as he was
running by the side of his chariot; and he picked it up and then went on
singing how his very footprints upon the earth over which he drove
produced gold and benefits to men.”
Caesar is the next
authority on the Celts in the order of time, but as his works are easily
accessible to all, only a condensed version of his account of the
manners and customs of the Celts will be given. Men of any account in
Gaul, he says, belong either to the class of Druids or of nobles, for
the general population are regarded as slaves, and are invited to no
political meeting. In fact, pressed by debt or by tyranny, they give
themselves up as slaves to the nobles, who have over them all the rights
of masters over their slaves. The Druids and their views Csesar
describes at fair length as well as the Gaulish Polytheism, but as we
have in a former paper considered that subject, we pass to the rest of
his description. The second class is the “equites” or nobles. They make
arms their profession, for before Caesar’s time they had yearly wars
either of offence or defence, and those are reckoned the greatest who
have most retainers and dependents. In fact, that is the only species of
power they are acquainted with. The Gauls reckon their time by nights
and not by days. In other customs and manners, their peculiarity
consists in that they don’t suffer their children to appear in their
presence, except when grown up, much less that a young lad should sit by
his father’s side in public. The dowry that a woman brings, the husband
must equal by a sum from his own resources, and this total falls to
either survivor. They have power of life and death over their wives and
children, and widows are tortured for information, if there is a
suspicion of foul play on a husband’s death, and, on proof of guilt, put
to death. Their funerals are magnificent, considering their state of
culture, and everything dear to the deceased, formerly even slaves and
dependents, are burnt along with them. The best regulated states have a
law that anyone who has foreign news of state importance must report the
same first to the Government, because experience has shown that rash and
unexperienced men are driven or frightened by false rumours to crime and
rash political action. The Government conceal or reveal the news,
according to their judgment. Politics must not be discussed except by a
public assembly. In another place, Caesar says that the Gauls have the
weakness of being fickle in political action, and prone to revolution.
They compel travellers to tell everything they have heard or learnt, and
merchants are surrounded by a crowd that demands whence they came, and
what was doing there. On such facts and reports they adopt measures of
the highest political importance, which they soon have cause to regret,
because of the uncertainty, and, for the most part, wilful falsity of
the information. In another book he speaks of their extreme intellectual
cleverness and their great capabilities for imitating and doing anything
they saw, and further on he states that “to desert their chief, even in
the extremity of fortune, is, in the moral code of the Gauls, accounted
as a crime.” His description of the Britons may be condensed as
follows:—Inland Britain is inhabited by native tribes, but the coast is
held by Belgians, who have given the names of the places they came from
to their new settlements. The population is countless, the buildings
very numerous, and almost exactly like those of Gaul, and cattle is
plentiful. They use for money coins of brass or rods of iron, made to a
certain weight. Tin is found in the midland districts, and iron on the
coast, but not in plenty. Their brass is imported. The hare, the hen,
and the goose they won’t taste on religious grounds. The inhabitants of
Kent are the most civilised; in fact, they differ little from the Gauls.
The people inland sow no corn, but live on milk and flesh, and clothe
themselves with skins. All the Britons paint themselves with woad, which
produces blue colour. This makes them more terrible in aspect. They wear
the hair long, and shave all except the upper lip. Communities of ten to
twelve men have their wives in common, and the children belong to the
man who originally married the mother. They have chariots, and fight
with them in this way. First, they ride along the whole field, and fire
their missiles, and by the noise and the impetus of their horses cause
confusion, and so break into their opponents’ ranks, when they leap down
and fight on foot. The charioteers meanwhile withdraw, and place the
chariots in such a way that, if the fighters are hard pressed, they may
fall back on them easily. Their skill by long practice is such that even
in steep and precipitous places they can check the horses at full speed,
and also guide and turn them in a moment, and they can run along the
tram pole, stand on its end, and run back again with the utmost
celerity.
Caesar’s contemporary,
Diodorus of Sicily, has left us perhaps the most important account of
the Celts that we now possess. Both he and Strabo found largely on
Posidonius. Diodorus’ mythical account of the origin of the Gaulish
people has already been given. “After this explanation as to the names
of the Gauls,” says he, “ it is needful to speak of their country also.
Gaul is inhabited by many nations, differing in size, for the largest
possess about two hundred thousand men, and the least fifty
thousand.....From the destructive nature of the climate, neither vine
nor olive is produced. Accordingly, the Gauls deprived of these fruits
prepare a drink from barley, which is called zythos. They run water
through honeycombs, and use for drink this dilution. Being excessively
fond of wine, they swallow it undiluted, when it is imported by
merchants, and through their keenness for it, they drink large
quantities, which drives them into sleep or a state of insanity. Hence
many Italian merchants turn the drunkenness of the Gauls to their own
gain; for they bring by the rivers in boats or by the roads in carts
wine to them, and receive in return an incredible price. For a jar of
wine they get a slave, exchanging the drink for a servant.
“In Gaul no silver at all
is got, but plenty of gold, which nature supplies to the inhabitants
without the trouble of mining. The mountain streams rushing down break
off the soil of their banks, and fill it with gold dust. This soil,
those engaged in such work gather, and from it eliminate the gold by
breaking up and sifting it with water. In this way a great quantity of
gold is collected, which not merely women, but also men use for
ornament. Hence they carry armlets and bracelets; they make thick
torques of pure gold for the neck, splendid rings, and, in addition,
breastplates of gold. A remarkable and unexpected fact holds among the
interior Gauls in regard to places of the worship of the gods. In the
temples and consecrated groves through the country, there lies cast
about a great quantity of gold dedicated to the gods; and none of the
inhabitants will touch it through religious fear, excessively fond
though the Celts bo of money.
“The Gauls have tall
persons; their flesh is sappy and white ; their hair is not only yellow,
but they strive by art to add to the peculiarity of its natural hue. For
they often rub their hair with a chalk wash, and draw it back from the
front of the head to the crown and ridge of the head, so that they
present the appearance of Satyrs. From cultivation their hair gets so
thick as to differ in no respect from a horse’s mane. Some shave their
faces (chins); others grow a moderate beard; the better classes shave
the cheeks, but grow a moustache so as to cover the mouth. Accordingly
in eating, the moustache is mixed up with the food, and in drinking, the
drink runs through a sieve as it were. At meals they do not sit upon
seats, but upon the ground, making use of the skins of wolves and dogs
for rugs. They are waited upon by very young children of both sexes, and
of tit age. Near them is a fire-place, full of fire, with kettles and
spits, full of large pieces of flesh. They honour their brave men with
the best portions of the meat, just as the poet introduces Ajax as
honoured by the chiefs, when he had conquered Hector in single fight.—
“And with long
chine-slices he honoured Ajax.”
They invite the strangers
to the feasts, and when the meal is over, they ask who they are, and
what they want. And even at the meal they are wont, after holding a
word-battle arising out of what was occurring, to challenge each other
and fight in single combat, caring not a jot for the loss of their life.
For among them the opinion of Pythagorus prevails, that the souls of men
are immortal, and in the course of a fixed number of years they live
again, the soul entering another body. Accordingly, at the burial of the
dead, some cast letters addressed to their departed relatives upon the
funeral pile, under the belief that the dead will read them.
“In journeys and in
battles they employ two-horsed chariots, the car of which carries a
charioteer and a fighting man. And when meeting cavalry in battle they
hurl their javelins at their opponents, and dismounting they resort to a
fight with the sword. Some among them so much despise death that they
enter danger naked and girt only with a belt. They employ freemen as
servants, taken from the poorer classes, whom they employ as charioteers
and attendants. They are wont in battle array to rush from the ranks and
challenge the best of their opponents to single combat, shaking their
arms and striking terror into their foes. Whenever anyone proceeds to
the fight, they sing the brave deeds of his forefathers, and publish his
own exploits, while they revile and humiliate his opponent, and with
their words deprive him of all courage of soul. The heads of their
fallen enemies they cut out and hang to their horses manes; the bloody
trophies they hand to their servants and lead in triumph, singing peaans
and songs of victory. These best parts of the booty they hang up in
their houses just as if they were trophies of the hunt. The heads of the
noblest enemies they embalm and preserve in chests, and show them with
pride to strangers; how that for this head some ancestor or parent or
himself had been offered a large sum of money, and had refused it. They
say that some of them boast that they did not accept an equal weight of
gold for the head, thus displaying a kind of barbaric magnanimity; for
it is not noble not to sell the pledges of valour, but to make war upon
the dead of one’s own race is brutal. They wear astounding clothes; dyed
tunics flowered with various colours, and trousers, which they call
“breeches.” They buckle on striped cloaks (tartan cl.), thick ones in
winter and light ones in summer, chequered with close, gaudy squares
Wohvavdeai irXivdois). They use as arms shields of a man’s height (dvpeos
= door-shaped), characteristically embellished with divers colours. Some
have brazen relief representations on them of animals skilfully worked,
not merely for ornament but also for safety. They wear brazen helmets,
having huge projections rising out of them, and producing the appearance
of great tallness on the part of the wearers. Some helmets have horns
shooting out of them, and others have the figures of birds and the faces
of animals carved on them in high relief. They have peculiar barbaric
trumpets, for with them they blow and produce a grating sound calculated
to cause terror to the foe. Some wear coats of iron chain mail, and some
are satisfied with the armour of nature, and fight unprotected by mail.
In place of a sword they wear long cutlasses (broadswords, hanging with
an iron or brass chain on the right thigh. Some begird their tunics with
belts ornamented with gold or silver. They carry spear lances which they
call aykicl, having the heads a cubic in length of iron and even more,
and in breadth not much short of two palm-breadths. For the swords are
not less than the javelins (<mwiov) of others, and the javelins have
longer blades than our swords. Some of these are forged straight; some
have throughout backward bent barbs not merely to cut, but so as to
break the flesh all in pieces, and on the withdrawal of the spear to
tear open the wound.
“They are terrible of
aspect, and their voices are deep-sounding and very rough, and in
intercourse they are curt in speech, enigmatic, and speaking much
obscurely and figuratively; they say much in hyperbolic language for
their own aggrandisement and the detraction of others. They are
threateners, declaimers, and stagey exaggerators, but sharp in
intellect, and not naturally inapt for learning. There are among them
poets of song whom they name “bards,” and these, on an instrument
similar to the lyre, sing in praise of some and in dispraise of others.
They have certain philosophers and theologians, held in excessive honour,
whom they name Druids. They also employ soothsayers, and bestow much
esteem on them. These, through bird auspices and the sacrifice of
victims, foretell the future, and have the entire multitude subservient
to them. Especially when they have under consideration any serious
business, they have a wonderful and incredible practice, for they offer
a man as sacrifice, striking him with a knife at the point above where
the diaphragm is, and as he falls, when struck, from his fall and the
convulsions of his limbs, and still more from the flow of his blood,
they read the future, having belief in this from old and long-continued
observance. It is a custom of theirs to do no sacrifice without a
philosopher, for it is through them as experienced in the divine nature,
as it were people of the same language with the gods, that the
thank-offerings, they say, must be made to the gods, and it is through
them that they think good things must be asked. Not merely in matters of
peace, but also against their enemies, do they especially obey these
men, and also the singing poets—not merely do friends obey them, even
the enemy will do so. Often when the armies draw near each other in
array for battle, with swords drawn and spears in rest, these men
advance into the ground between them and stop them just as though taming
and charming wild beasts. So among the wildest barbarians passion yields
to art and wisdom, and Mars reveres the Muses.
“It is worth while to
make clear what is unknown among many. For those that dwell above
Marseilles in the interior, and those in the Alps, and further, those
who dwell on this side the Pyrennees, they call Celts; those above this
Celtica, who inhabit the northern district along the Atlantic and the
Hercynian range —all those from there to Scythia, they call Gauls (Galatse.)
The Romans call all these nations collectively Gauls. The women of the
Gauls not merely are equal to the men in height, but they also rival
them in courage. The children among them are at first white-haired (polia)
for the most part, but with advancing years they are transformed to
their father’s colour of hair. Those that dwell in the north and on the
borders of Scythia being the wildest, they say that they eat men, just
as also the Britons who inhabit what is called Irin. So much was the
fame of their warlike valour and ferocity spread that those who infested
all Asia (Minor), then called Cimmerii, are thought to be those now
called from length of time Cimbri. Of old they devoted themselves to
plundering other people’s countries, and despising all others. It was
they who took Rome, plundered the temple at Delphi, made tributary a
great part of Europe, and no small part of Asia (Minor); on account of
their mingling with the Greeks, they were called Gallo-Grecians; in
short, they overthrew many large Roman armies. In like manner with the
wildness characteristic of them, do they also commit impiety in regard
to the sacrifice of the gods. For criminals, kept for five years, they
impale 011 poles in honour of the gods, and with the other first fruits
devote them to the gods, preparing huge pyres. They look upon these
prisoners in no other light than as victims in honour of the gods. Some
also kill the live animals taken in war? along with the men, or burn
them, 01* remove them by some other punishment. They have handsome women
; yet some unnatural vices exist. They are wont to sleep on skins of
wild beasts on the ground.”
Diodorus touches on the
inhabitants of Britain too; he says:—
“People say that the
races that inhabit Britain are ‘Aborigines,’ and that they preserve the
ancient life in their customs. For they employ chariots for war just as
the ancient heroes of Greece are said to have employed in the Trojan
war. And they have mean houses constructed of reeds of wood, for the
most part. The inbringing of the crops they do thus: they cut off the
ears of corn, and stow them in cellars; and then the old ears they each
day pluck, and thus prepared they use as food. Their maimers are simple
and far removed from the cunning and wickedness of our present race.
They are satisfied with frugal fare, and far removed from the luxury
engendered by riches. The island is populous ; it possesses a cold
climate, lying, of course, as it does under the polar bear. They have
many kings and chiefs, and for the most part they are peacefully
disposed to each other.”
Virgil has left us a
picture of the Gauls, as he thought they must have looked at the sacking
of Rome; this is how they appeared on Æneas’ shield.—
“The Gauls were at hand
marching among the brushwood, and had gained the summit sheltered by the
darkness and the kindly grace of dusky night. Golden is their hair and
golden their raiment; striped cloaks gleam on their shoulders; their
milk-white necks are trimmed with gold and each brandishes two Alpine
javelines, his body guarded by the long oval of his shield.”
The striped cloak of
Virgil is the prototype of the tartan plaid of the Highlander. The
“virgata” of Virgil was used by Buchanan to express “tartan.” “Veste
gaudent varia ac maxime virgata.” That is his description of the dress
of the Scottish Highlanders.
Livy has much to say
historically of the Gauls, but he only incidentally gives us a glimpse
of their character and appearance. They first appear in his th
book, “burning with indignation, a passion which nationally they are
unable to restrain.” A generation after the great battle of Allia (390
B.C.), the Gauls were again near Rome; the armies stood facing each
other, and a champion of the Gauls came forth, Goliah-like, to challenge
the armies of the “eternal city” to do single combat. The Romans were
staggered; the Gaul for a while was unanswered and unopposed, and he
proceeded to jeers, and “putting out of his tongue” in mockery at them.
“His person was extraordinary in size; his dress was parti-coloured
(tartan); and he shone in arms glittering with colour and with gold.” In
the Punic wars he tells us Hannibal had Spanish and Gaulish auxiliaries.
“ The Gauls and Spaniards have shields of about the same shape, but
their swords are different in size and purpose. The Gauls have swords
that are very long, and without points; the Spaniard’s swords are more
adapted for thrusting than slashing or cutting, handy by their
shortness, and possessed of sharp ends. . . . The Gauls were stripped
naked above the waist for the fight.” in B.C. 189, the Consul Manlius
came face to face with the Gauls of Asia Minor and found it necessary in
view of the terror which the Gauls always inspired in the Romans, and
the great fame these Gallo-Grecians had in war, to rouse the courage of
his men in a speech like this.—
“It does not escape me
that of all the nations of Asia the Gauls excel in reputation for war.
Midst quite a meek race of men, a nation of high and warlike spirit (ferox
natio), after ravaging nigh well the whole earth with war, took
possession of a settlement. They have tall persons, long and reddish-coloured
hair, huge shields, long swords (praelongi gladii). Besides, as they
begin the fight, they come on with singing, war-whoops, and dancing, and
after the national fashion of Gaul, they strike their shields, and
rattle in a terrible way their arms, doing everything of set purpose to
inspire terror. These things may frighten Greeks and Phrygians, who are
unacquainted with them : but we, Romans, accustomed as we are to Gallic
‘tumults,’ know them to be mere empty show. True, they did once at the
first meeting defeat our fathers at AIlia ; but ever since then, for the
last two hundred years, we have slaughtered, laid them low, and defeated
them, gaining more triumphs over them than over the rest of the world.
By our long experience we know this fact: If you resist their first
onset, which they make in pouring numbers with hot spirit and blind
wrath, their limbs are melted away with sweat and fatigue, their arms
slip from their hands, their soft bodies and soft courage, once their
wrath is cooled, are laid low by the sun, the dust and thirst; you will
not even have to point a weapon against them.”
Strabo, the geographer,
who lived at the beginning of our era, thus describes the Gauls:—
“The entire race, which
now goes by the name of Gallic or Galatic is warlike, passionate, and
always ready for fighting, but otherwise simple and not malicious. If
irritated, they rush in crowds to the conflict, openly and without any
circumspection; and thus are easily vanquished by those who employ
stratagem. For anyone may exasperate them when, where, and under
whatever pretext he pleases; he will always find them ready for danger,
with nothing to support them except their violence and daring.
Nevertheless they may be easily persuaded to devote themselves to
anything useful, and have thus engaged both in science and letters.
Their power consists both in the size of their bodies and also in their
numbers. Their frankness and simplicity lead them easily to assemble in
masses, each one feeling indignant at what appears injustice to his
neighbour. At the present time they are all at peace subject to the
Romans; but we have described their customs, as we understand they
existed in former times, and as they still exist among the Germans. . .
. They march in crowds in one collected army, or rather remove with all
their families, whenever they are ejected by a more powerful force. . .
All the Gauls are
warriors by nature, but they fight better on horseback than on foot, and
the flower of the Roman cavalry is drawn from their number. ... No part
of Gaul is unproductive, except where there are swamps or forests, and
even these parts are inhabited, yet rather on account of the
populousness than the industry of the people ; for the women are
prolific and careful nurses, but the men are better warriors than
husbandmen. . . .
The Gauls wear saga
(mantles), let their hair grow, and use tight trousers. Instead of
tunics they wear a slashed garment with sleeves descending below the
hips (Mexpi aidoluv /cat yXovrwv). The wool is coarse but short
(long1?); from it they weave the thick sagi which they call ‘XcuVcu’ (laense.)
. . . The equipment of the Gauls is in keeping with the size of their
bodies; they have a long sword hanging at their right side, a long
shield, and lances in proportion, together with a ‘ materis ’ somewhat
resembling a javelin. Some of them also use bows and slings; they have
also a wooden weapon resembling a dart, which is hurled, not out of a
thong, but from the hand, and goes a further distance even than an
arrow. They make use of it chiefly in shooting birds. To the present day
most of them lie on the ground, and take their meals seated on straw.
They subsist principally on milk and all kinds of flesh, especially that
of swine, which they eat both fresh and salted. Their swine live in the
fields, and surpass in height, strength, and swiftness. To persons
unaccustomed to approach them, they are almost as dangerous as wolves.
The people dwell in great houses arched, constructed of planks and
wicker, and covered with a heavy thatched roof. They have sheep and
swine in such abundance that they supply saga and salted pork in plenty,
not only to Rome, but to most parts of Italy. Their governments were for
the most part aristocratic; formerly they chose a governor every year,
and a military leader was likewise elected by the multitude. At present
they are mostly under subjection to the Romans. They have a peculiar
custom in their assemblies. If any one makes an uproar or interrupts the
speaker, an attendant advances with a drawn sword, and commands him with
a menace to be silent; if he persists, the attendant does the same thing
two other times, and finally cuts off from his sagum so large a piece as
to render the remainder useless. The labours of the two sexes are
distributed in a manner the reverse of what they are with us, but this
is a common thing with numerous other barbarians. Amongst them all,
three classes more especially are held in distinguished veneration, the
Bards, the Sooth sayers, and the Druids. The bards are chaunters and
poets. The Soothsayers are sacrifi-cers and physiologists (students of
nature.) The Druids, in addition to physiology, practise ethic
philosophy. They are deemed to be most upright, and, in consequence, to
them are committed both public and private controversies, insomuch that
on some occasions they deeidc wars, and stop the combatants on the eve
of engaging. Matters partaining to murder are more especially entrusted
to their decision, and whenever there is plenty of these, they think
there will also be plenty of fertility in the country. These and others
say that souls are immortal, and also the world, yet that ultimately
fire and water will prevail. To their simple city and impetuosity are
superadded much folly, vain boasting, and love of ornament. They wear
gold, havnig collars of it on their necks, and bracelets on their arms
and wrists; and persons in position are clad in dyed garments,
embroidered with gold. This lightness of character makes them
intolerable when they conquer, and throws them into consternation when
worsted. In addition to their folly, they have a barbarous and absurd
custom, common, however, with many nations of the north, of suspending
the heads of their enemies from their horses’ necks on their return from
battle, and, when they have arrived, of nailing them as a spectacle to
their gates. Posidonius says he witnessed this in many different places,
and was at first shocked, but became familiar with it in time, on
account of its frequency. The heads of any illustrious persons they
embalm with cedar, exhibit them to strangers, and would not sell them
for their weight in gold. However, the Romans put a stop to these
customs as well as their modes of sacrifice and divination, which were
quite opposite to those sanctioned by our laws. They would strike a man,
devoted as an offering, on his back with a sword, and divine from his
convulsion throes. Without the Druids they never sacrifice. It is said
they have other modes of sacrificing their human victims; that they
shoot some of them with arrows, and crucify others in their temples; and
that they prepare a colossus of hay, with wood thrown over it, into
which they put cattle, beasts of all kinds, and men, and then set fire
to it.”
Of the Britons he
says:—“The men are taller than the Celti, with hair less yellow, and
slighter in their persons. As an instance of their height, we ourselves
saw at Rome some youths who were taller by so much as half a foot than
the tallest there; but they were bowed legged, and in other respects not
symmetrical in their conformation. Their manners are in part like those
of the Celts, though in part more simple and barbarous ; insomuch that
some of them, though possessing plenty of milk, have not skill enough to
make cheese, and are totally unacquainted with horticulture and other
matters of husbandry. There are several states amongst them. In their
wars they make use of chariots for the most part, as do some of the
Celts. Forests are their cities; for having enclosed an ample space with
felled trees, here they make themselves huts and lodge their cattle,
though not for any long continuance.”
The classical authors
need scarcely be followed further than to the middle of the first
century of our era, for Rome had by this time spread its sway and its
culture over Gaul, and much of the special customs, manners, and
institutions of the Gauls had disappeared. Even Strabo has to speak of
many things he describes as no longer existent. Druidism, for instance,
was abolished under Augustus and his next three successors; by Druidism
are meant the superstition which demanded human sacrifice and the
medicine-man priestcraft which interfered with Rome’s religious and
political prejudices. Later writers, therefore, as a rule, only repeat
previous information, and help us little to realise the life of the “
Ancient Celt.” Pliny, indeed, may be excepted, with his many
superstitions and queer customs, which he traces over all the Roman
world ; but they are too minute and too numerous to be here quoted with
any satisfaction or importance to our subject. He tells us how the Gauls
wore in one generation the ring on the middle finger, and the next every
finger was loaded with jewellery save that one; how they learned to dye
all kinds of colours “ with the juice only of certain herbs and how the
Gauls knew something of scientific farming in chalking and marling their
land—indeed, they appear to have been good enough farmers as far as
knowledge is concerned, though Strabo tells us they were better fighters
than husbandman. We may, besides Pliny, quote Ammianus Marcellinus, a
writer of the 4th century, who knew the Gauls well, to show the position
of women in Gaul:—“Several foreigners together could not wrestle against
a single Gaul, if they quarrelled with him, especially if he called for
help to his wife, who even exceeds the husband in her strength and in
her haggard eyes. She would become especially formidable when swelling
her throat, gnashing her teeth, and poising her arms, robust and white
as snow, ready to act with feet or fists, she struck out with them with
the force of a catapult.” A Saturday night in the Irish quarter of any
of our largest towns would forcibly remind one of this description. But
this approximation of the women to the men in size and strength is a
good sign of the advanced state of culture the Gauls were in.
We now sum up the leading
points of Celtic manners and customs. The Celts were tall in stature,
white-skinned, goldenhaired, blue-eyed. They let their hair grow, but
shaved the face, leaving only a moustache. They wore trousers and
blouses descending to the upper part of the thighs, and over this was
cast the mantle or sagum, richly embroidered with gold. They were very
fond of colours in their dresses, “flaming and fantastic.” They wore
personal ornaments like neck-torques, bracelets, and rings. They were
agriculturists of no mean calibre : but they had a crofter question, as
we see from Ca;sar and others ; for the farming dass appear to have been
much in debt, and practically in the power of the nobles and usurers
(negotiator). There is evidence that originally the land belonged to
themselves. The advent of the Romans only brought new sources of misery;
for veritable “Sutherland” sheep farms were actually held by Roman
nobles and knights. We see this from Cicero’s speech for Quintius, for
example. They knew manufactures, as we see from Pliny— fabricating
serges, cloths, and felts, of great repute. Mines were worked in
Southern Gaul, and smith-work carried to much perfection ; the art of
tinning was known, and copper was, for instance, plated with silver leaf
to ornament horse’s trappings, as Pliny vouches. Their food was flesh
generally, and pork especially; their drink was milk, ale, and mead. It
is noted by Cicero, Diodorus, and others, that they were inclined to
intemperance. In disposition, they were frank, hospitable to strangers,
but vain and quarrelsome, fickle in sentiments, and fond of novelties.
They were fond of war, hot in attack, but easily discouraged by reverse.
They spoke much in figurative language ; they used Greek letters. They
were religious, or rather superstitious, going to fearful excesses.
Their religion was polytheism of the Greek and Roman style, but they
were priest-ridden. In family matters, a son could not publicly appear
with his father until of the age to bear arms; the wife’s dowry was
equalled by a sum from the husband, which all fell to the survivor.
Their funerals were by cremation, at least, among the nobles, and were
extravagant. In war, they had long iron two-edged swords, adapted for
cutting, sheathed in iron scabbards, and suspended to the side by
chains. They had spears, whose points were long, broad, and serrated to
tear the flesh. They made use of light javelins also, with the bow and
sling; though these weapons are not characteristic of them. Their
helmets were of metal, ornamented with horns or figures in relief of
animals. They carried a large oblong shield, a breastplate of iron, and
a coat of mail, which last was a Gaulish invention. They were excellent
horsemen; but earlier the Celts fought in chariots, as they did in
Britain at Csesar’s time. They challenged the foe to single combats, and
used to hang the heads of the enemy from their horses’ neck, carrying
them home in triumph to be nailed up for trophies. Their political
system had originally been kingly power, which gave way, as in Greece,
to an oligarchy. The oligarchy was the common form in Gaul, as Strabo
says, but tyrants were not unknown. They had severe laws passed against
anyone who tried to become tyrant, as we see in Orgetorix’s case. The
oligarchical republics had senates and consuls—the consul among the Edui
being called Vergobretus. They had political parties and chiefships of
individuals and states. Their houses were large, dome-shaped, and made
of wood. They had towns and villages; plenty of roads and bridges. The
ancient Celts were, therefore, as Posidonius had observed, “just like
the people in Homer’s time,” an observation quite true in regard to
Britain in Caesar’s time, but the Gauls were rather in the state of
Greece before the Persian wars. A wonderful light is reflected by a
study of ancient Celtic customs on the heroic tales and legends of
ancient Ireland; the tales about Cuchullin and Conchobar exactly
reproduce on old Irish soil the life of the ancient Celts ; we see their
banquets with their “champion share” and their fights in the Feast of
Bricrend ; we see their gorgeous magnificence of person and dress in the
Brudin-da-Derga; and we see them in the various aspects of war in the
great Tain-bo-Chuailgne.
(3) LANGUAGE OF THE
ANCIENT CELTS.
The language of the
ancient Celts has fared worse than their history or their culture. Only
a few inscriptions remain to us of the Gaulish language of Cfesar’s time
and later, and these do not give any satisfactory idea of the state of
the language. There are hundreds of Celtic names in the classical
authors, but their value in showing the grammatical forms of the
language is almost nil. Some words of linguistic significance are handed
down by the classical writers; such, for instance, is petorrituen, “ayber-wheeled
chariot,” where pelor is the Gaulish form for Gaelic-Irish cethir
“four.” This shows that the Gaulish of Caesar’s time was already
progressing on different lines from the Goidelic or Gaelic branch; the
Welsh for “ four ” is pedwar. Some centuries previous to the beginning
of our era, the two branches of the Celtic speech separated—the Goidelic
and Brythonic, to use Professors Rhys’ terminology. The qu of Italo-Celtic
and ancient Celtic times was stiffened by the one into k, and by the
other—the Brythonic— labialised into p. They both agree in dropping
almost everywhere the Aryan p ; for example, Lat., plemis {full))
Gaelic, Idn ; Welsh, llawn. Some linguistic tendencies must have also
been developed in the “Ancient Celtic” period, notably the sinking of
vowel-flanked consonants into “ aspirated ” forms. The old Gaulish and
British, with their descendants, the modern Welsh and Breton, and the
lately extinct Cornish, all belong to the Gallic or Brythonic branch of
Celtic; the old Irish and old Gaelic with their modern descendants of
Ireland, Man, and Scotland belong to the Goidelic or Gaelic branch.
We can here only present
results, and the following view of the ancient grammar of the Celtic
language is arrived at by examining the laws which regulate the
terminations of Gaelic, but more especially of old Irish forms. Thus a
“small” vowel like e or i at the termination of a word forces itself
back into the preceding syllable rather than be altogether extinguished.
Examples exist in English, as foot, with plural feet for fdte originally
; but Gaelic carries this system through most consistently. Thus bard (a
bard) has genitive singular and nominative plural baird for original
bardi. Gaelic in Scotland has allowed the regressive action of long a to
aflect the preceding syllable, as clach, Irish clock for original cloca.
The terminal s and other consonants are restored from the analogy of the
classical languages, which also lost them since the commencement of our
era. The “restoration” follows Windiseh, more especially. “Prehistoric”
stands for over two thousands years ago, and is parallel to “Ancient” of
Ancient Celts. |