II. inhabitants of Britain, before whose arrival it was CHAP. occupied by bears, wolves, beavers, and oxen with large protuberances. 28 They add, that Hu Cadarn, or Hu the Strong, or Mighty, led the nation of the Kymry through the Hazy, or German Ocean, into Britain, and to Llydaw, or Armorica, in France; and that the Kymry came from the eastern parts of Europe, or the regions where Constantinople now stands. Though we would not convert Welsh traditions into history, where they stand alone, it cannot be unreasonable to remember them, when they coincide with the classical authorities. In the by the collector to have some mutual analogy. It is the strange form into which their bards, or ancient writers, chose to arrange the early circumstances of their history. One of the most complete series of their triads has been printed in the Archaiology of Wales, vol. ii. p. 57–75. It was printed from a MS. dated 1601, and the writer of it states that he had taken them out of the books of Caradoc of Llancarvan, and of John Breckfa. Caradoc lived in the twelfth century. Breckfa was much later. 28 It may not be uninteresting to translate the whole triad. "Three names have been given to the isle of Britain since the beginning. Before it was inhabited, it was called Clas Merddin (literally the country with sea cliffs), and afterwards Fel Ynis (the island of honey). When government had been imposed upon it by Prydain, the son of Aedd the Great, it was called Ynys Prydain (the island of Prydain); and there was no tribute to any but to the race of the Kymry, because they first obtained it; and before them, there were no more men alive in it, nor any thing else but bears, wolves, beavers, and the oxen with the high prominence." Triad 1. Arch. v. ii. p. 57. 29"The three pillars of the nation of the isle of Britain. First, Hu Gadarn, who led the nation of the Cymry first to the isle of Britain; and from the country of Summer, which is called Deffrobani, they came; this is where Constantinople is: and through the hazy ocean they came to the island of Britain, and to Llydaw, where they have remained." Triad 4. p. 57. BOOK present case the agreement is striking. The KimI. merians, according to the authorities already stated, proceeded from the vicinity of the Kimmerian Bosphorus to the German Ocean; and the Welsh deduce their ancestors, the Cymry, from the regions south of the Bosphorus. The Welsh indeed add the name of their chieftain, and that a division of the same people settled in Armorica. But if the memory of Lygdamis, who led the Kimmerian emigration to Asia, and of Brennus, who marched with the Kelts against Greece, were preserved in the countries which they overran; so might the name of Hu Cadarn, who conducted some part of the western emigrations, be remembered in the island which he colonised. 30 That Armorica, or Bretagne, was peopled by a race of men similar to those who inhabited Britain, is verified by the close resemblance of the languages of the two countries. As we have traced the probable identity of the Kymry with the Kimmerii, and the actual identity rians and of these with the Kimbri; it will be right to add the few circumstances, of the manners of these ancient people, which the classical writers have transmitted. They appear to have been such as might be expected from the earliest emigrants of the civilised stock, who diverged the farthest from their primitive seats of civilisation. But as no Manners of the Kimme Cimbri. Tacitus took the trouble to study their internal customs, we know nothing of their polity or national institutions. The repulsive features that most struck the attention of their enemies are nearly all 30 Pausanias has preserved the names of many of the kings of the Kelts who invaded Greece. So, Livy has transmitted to us those of the Keltic leaders, who attacked Italy in the time of the first Tarquin. II. that is recorded about them. They were too much CHAP. dreaded or hated, to be carefully inspected or favourably delineated. EPHORUS said of the Kimmerians, that they dwelt in subterraneous habitations, which they called argillas, communicating by trenches. 31 It is certainly a curious analogy of language, that argel, in the language of the Cymry, or British, means a covert, a place covered over. 32 This mode of habitation seems to have been the primitive state of barbaric life. The Troglodytes of Asia are said to have lived in caves; and Tacitus describes some of the ruder German tribes as dwelling under ground. The practice of several animals which burrow in the earth may have suggested the custom; and it suits that savage state into which even the emigrants from civilised society may lapse, among woods and marshes, want and warfare, if they lose the knowledge of the mechanic arts, or the tools which these require. Ephorus added, that they had an oracle deep under ground. The Kimbri swore by a brazen bull, which they carried with them. In battle they appeared with helmets representing fierce beasts gaping, or some strange figures; and 31 Ap. Strabo, Geo. lib. v. p. 375. 32 The word occurs in the ancient Welsh poetry, as in the Afallenau of Merddhin, a dyf yn argel yn argoedydd, will come in the covert in the lofty woods. 1 W. Archaiol. p.152. It is also used in the Englynion Beddaw of Taliessin : dan y guellt ac guevel. The grave of Llia the Gwyddelian in the covert of Ardudwy, under the grass and withered leaves. 1 Archaiol. p. 80. I. BOOK added a high floating crest to make them look taller. They used white shining shields, and iron mail, and either the battle-axe, or long and heavy swords. They thought it base to die of a disease, and exulted in a military death, as a glorious and happy end. 33 CALLIMACHUS applies to these people the epithet horse-milkers. 34 This incident corresponds with the preceding accounts. The attachment to mare's milk has been common to most nations in their uncivilised state. Most rude and poor nations drink the milk of the animals they ride: as the Arabs of the desart use that of their camels. This habit suits their moveability, scanty property, small fodder, and a sterile or uncultivated country. THE religious rites of the Kimmerians included occasionally human sacrifices; one of the most ancient and universal superstitions, which affected and disgraced mankind in the first stages of their idolatrous and polytheistic worship. Strabo, after remarking of the Kimbri, that their wives accompanied them in war, says that many hoary priestesses of their oracle followed, clothed in white linen garments bound with a brazen girdle, and with naked feet. These women, with swords in their hands, sought the captives through the army, and threw them into a brass vessel of the size of twenty amphora. Then one of the prophetesses, ascending an elevation, stabbed them singly, as suspended above the cauldron; and made her divinations from the manner in which the blood flowed into it. The other assistants of the horrible superstition opened the bodies, and predicted vic 33 Plut. in Mario. Val. Max. l. ii. c. 6. 34 Callim. Hym. in Dian, v. 252. II. tory from the inspection of the bowels. In their CHAP. conflicts, they used a species of immense drum; for they struck upon skins stretched over their war chariots, which emitted a very powerful sound. 35 Plutarch describes the women to have been placed on their waggons in the conflict with Marius; and when the men gave way in the battle, to have killed those who fled, whether parents or brothers. They strangled their infants at the same time, and threw them under the wheels, while fighting the Romans, and at last destroyed themselves rather than survive the calamity. These descriptions lead us to recollect some analogous passages of Tacitus concerning the Britons at the period of the Roman invasion. He describes women, with firebrands in their hands, running like furies among the army of the Britons in Anglesey; and adds, that they stained their altars with the blood of their captives; and consulted their gods by the fibres of men. mentions also, that before their destruction of the colony at Camelodunum, "Women, agitated with the prophetic fury, sang its approaching ruin." 36 He BUT upon investigating the remains of antiquity, The Kelts we find another ancient people, placed in some of the western regions of Europe, at the time when Greek history begins. They were called KeλTOI, and afterwards Taara; and Cæsar says of them, 35 Strabo, lib. vii. p. 451, 36 Tacitus Annal. lib. xiv. Stabat pro litore diversa acies, densa armis virisque, intercursantibus feminis. In modum furiarum, veste ferali, crinibus dejectis, faces preferebant - Nam cruore captivo adolere aras; et hominum fibris consulere deos fas habebant -Et feminæ in furore turbatæ, adesse exitium canebant. |