Among these widely-separated nations we find a continual recurrence of the rule that the youngest son ought to inherit his father's dwelling-place. As early as the days of Père Du Halde it was known that the custom prevailed among the Mongols of the Chinese Empire.1 In Hungary it was the law of the country districts that the youngest son should inherit the father's house, making a proper compensation to the other coheirs for the privilege. Among the Northern Tchuds, although the chief of the family can delegate his power to the eldest or youngest son, or even to a stranger if he so pleases, yet the house in which he lives must go to the youngest son at his death.2

We find traces among the same peoples of a worship of ancestors connected with a respect for the family hearth.3 The following extract from the French report on the peoples of Central Asia relates to the Northern Tchuds, who maintain the privilege of the youngest son in its

1 "Utdschigin (Feuerhüter) hiess der jüngste Sohn bei den Mongolen, als erbend." Bastian, Rechtsverh. 185. See also Götting. Gelehrt. Anzeig. (1865), 453. and Heidelb. Jahrb. (1864), 210. For the story of the preference of the youngest among the Scythians see Herod. iv. 5, 10; Bergmann, "Les Gètes," (Paris, 1859), 82; and as to Prester John, "fratrum suorum minimus," see Alberic. Trium Fontium. ii. 508. The latter instances may be connected with the well-known preference of the youngest in the fairy tales.

2 See the Essay by M. De Mezö-Kövesd, "Les Vêpses et leur pays." "Le grand-père ou l'aieul est le chef absolu de la famille. Il peut se faire succéder comme chef de famille par le cadet de ses fils, si l'âiné ou les autres lui déplaisent pour une raison ou une autre Le père de famille a le droit d'instituer comme son héritier qui bon lui semble parmi sa famille, mais la maison qu'il habite doit appartenir au plus jeune des fils." Report iii. 81, 82. For the Hungarian law, see Kövy, Summ. Jur. Hung. 351.

3 Keightley, Fairy Mythol. 488. Compare Burton, Anat. Melanch. i. pt. 2, p. 125.

simplest and most usual form. "L'esprit de la maison est un farfadet, lutin bienfaisant qui se tient dernière le poêle. Si on laisse tomber du feu dans le foin, il l'éteint. Quand on construit une nouvelle maison, on l'invite à demeurer avec vous. On prend à cet effet de la cendre dans le poêle et on l'emporte dans la nouvelle maison. Quand on ouvre la porte de la nouvelle maison, on doit entrer du pied droit et jeter un pain noir dans la chambre. Ensuite on fait entrer un coq, et si le coq chante c'est un bon signe, cela signifie que le lutin est là et qu'il prendra soin des nouveaux arrivés." 1

When further information is obtained about the obscure history of the Finns and their influence upon Western Europe, it may become possible to prove that the custom of descent to the youngest flowed as naturally from their primitive institutions as the old custom of primogeniture from the position which was given to the eldest in the service of the family religion.

Meanwhile it should not be forgotten that there was one magical possession, an idol of the domestic worship in the medieval German households, which we find passing at the father's death to the youngest son upon the express condition that he performed certain heathenish rites in

1 De Mezö-Kövesd (Les Bachkirs, les Vêspes, &c.) iii. 84. Compare Mr. Lang's Essay on the Folk-lore of France, Folk-lore Record, i. 101. "The beliefs connected with the dead are of the ordinary kind. The mattress on which any one dies is to be burned. In some places in the Department of the Vosges the ashes are allowed to lie on the ground all night, and if in the morning the trace of a footstep is found among them it is supposed that the dead has returned. When one adds to these beliefs the custom of sacrificing a cock when a family takes possession of a new house, it is plain that remains of very early 'animistic' and religious ideas survive among the peasantry."

relation to the father's funeral. The "mandrake," a plant with broad leaves and bright yellow flowers and with a root which grew in a semi-human form, was found beneath the public gallows and was dragged from the ground and carried home with many extraordinary ceremonies. When secured, it became a familiar spirit, speaking in oracles if properly consulted and bringing good luck to the household in which it was enshrined. We are not concerned with the mystical powers of Mandragoras, which was the Fée Magloire and "Hand of Glory" of the later magicians who mistook the meaning of the word. But it is very

1 Grimm, Deutsch. Mythol. 1153; Rechts-Alterth. 475; Deutsche Sagen, No. 83; Roth, De Imagunculis Germanorum. 1737. The nature of the worship of the mandrake appears very clearly in Keysler's account of an idol of this kind which was preserved in his time in the collection of Dr. Heinsius, Antiqu. Septent. 506. A specimen may be seen in this country in the Museum of the Royal College of Surgeons. Keysler prints a letter from a citizen of Leipzic to his brother in Livonia, dated in 1575, in which after discussing his brother's bad fortune in every matter of his household he proceeds as follows:-"So habe ich mich nu von deinetwegen ferner bemühet und bin zu den Leuten gangen, die solches gehabt haben, als bey unsern Scharff-Richter, und ich habe ihn dafür geben als nehmlich mit 64 Thaler und des Budels Knecht ein Engels-Kleidt zu Drinckgeldt solches soll dir nu lieber Bruder aus Liebe und Treue geschencket sein, und so soltu es lernen wie ich dir schreib in diesen Brieve wen du den Erdman in deinen Hause oder Hofe überkümmest so lass es drey Tage ruhen ehr du darzu gehest, nach den 3 Tagen so hebe es uff und bade es in warmen Wasser, mit dem Bade soltu besprengen dein Vieh und die Sullen deines Hauses do du und die deinen übergehen so wird es sich mit dir woll bald anders schicken, und du wirst woll wiederum zu den deinen kommen wen du dieses Erdmänneken wirst zu rade halten und du solt es alle Jahr viermahl baden und so offte du es badest so solt du es wiederum in sein Seiden Kleidt winden und legen es bey deinen besten Kleidern die du hast so darffstu Ihnen nicht mehr thun u.s.w. Nun lieber Bruder dis Erdmänneken schicke ich dir zu einem glückseeligen neuen Jahr und lass es nicht von dir kommen das es magk behalten dein Kindes-kind hiemit Gott befohlen."

important for our purpose to observe, that the idol or Galgen-männlein" became the property of the youngest son on condition that he buried with the body a morsel of bread and a piece of money according to the old pagan practice. If the youngest son died in his father's lifetime, the question arose whether the eldest son could take the "Alraun" or mandrake; and it was held that the domestic god would fall into his share, provided always that he had fulfilled the ceremony of the bread and money on the occasion of his younger brother's funeral.1

1 For a plant-superstition among the Finns, resembling the belief in the powers of the Mandrake, see Keightley, Fairy Myth. 488.

CHAPTER IX.

THE BRITONS OF THE INTERIOR.

Physical condition of the country-Misrepresented by Roman orators-State under Agricola, the Plantagenets and Elizabeth—Absence of genuine early descriptions— Sources of the statements of Bede and his school-Notice of British pearlfisheries Comparison of the accounts of Ireland-The picture of Britain by Gildas-True sources of information-Special records-Allusions of writers on general history-Giraldus, Aneurin, Pliny-The Celtic races of Northern and Western Britain-Little affected by the English invasions-The evidence from language of uncertain value-The tribes of the South-West-Their superior culture -Their foreign trade-Description of their ships-The tribes of the West of low civilization and mixed blood-The Silures-The Dobuni of the CotswoldsThe Cornavians-The Ordovices of North Wales-Their mixed descent-The Central Tribes-The name "Coritavi" applied to several distinct races-Notices by Strabo and Cæsar -The ruder tribes migratory-The confederated tribes of the North-Their success in war-The story of Queen Cartismandua-Rules a Brigantian tribe-Commands the Brigantian army—The Brigantians compared with the Irish by Tacitus-Their life at home and in the field.

WE

E turn from the speculation on the origin of these ancient customs to collect what is known about the Britons of the Interior before they adopted the Gaulish fashions, or were drawn by Agricola's policy step by step to "the lounge, the bath, and the banquet," and to all that provincial refinement which was but a disguise of their servitude! We shall endeavour to describe their manners and habits of life; but it will be necessary in the first place to take some general view of the physical condition of the country.

It was a land of uncleared forests, with a climate as yet not mitigated by the organized labours of mankind. The province in course of time became a flourishing portion of