beads or amber; or, according to the nature of the locality, were worked in jet or some other bitumenized substance. All round the alum-shale beds near Whitby the true jet was extensively used for this purpose; and the complex necklaces have been described as consisting of rows of beads, with dividing-plates marked with punctures "arranged saltire-wise and in chevrons"; or a simpler collar was formed with cylinders or thin plates of jet, graduated and strung side by side in the form of a flexible necklace.1 Where this material did not exist, analogous substances were used for making the ornaments, as Kimmeridge shale in Wilts and Dorset, or lignite from the Devonshire beds, or Cannel coal in Shropshire. Some few of the articles of adornment, beads, cups, earrings, and thin plates to be fastened on the dress, were made of the native gold, or rather of the mixed gold and silver which the smiths had not yet learned to separate; and though the patterns as a rule were copied from the rough designs upon the pottery, the style of the workmanship was excellent. The plates of metal were hammered over engraved moulds of wood, or the back was "tooled in the manner of repoussé work"; and the separate pieces were skilfully dove-tailed or riveted together without the use of any kind of solder." Many

1 The true jet is chiefly found in the neighbourhood of Whitby; but small deposits have been discovered at Cromer, at Watchet in Somerset, and in the beds of the Aberthaw lias on the opposite Glamorganshire coast. The finest examples of the ornaments have been found in Sutherland and in the district round Holyhead. The most abundant examples are seen in Yorkshire, Derbyshire, and Northumberland; the most southern locality where a specimen of the worked jet has been found is Soham Fen, in Cambridgeshire. (See Thurnam's account, Archæol. xliii. 514, 517.)

2 Thurnam, ubi suprà, 532. These ornaments are found chiefly in places where the native gold was worked, as in Cornwall and Devon, parts

other kinds of ornament have been from time to time discovered in the tumuli; such as ivory pins and beads, and crescents made of the wolf's teeth and boars' tusks which were perforated and worn as charms; and necklaces of Dentalium, the shell called the Ear of Venus, and of nerite-shells, and the joints of the fossil sea-lily that are known as "St. Cuthbert's beads."1

The exploration of these barrows has produced a great body of evidence to illustrate the life of the Bronze-Age Britons. It is clear that they were not mere savages, or a nation of hunters and fishers, or even a people in the pastoral and migratory stage. The tribes had learned the simpler arts of society, and had advanced towards the refinements of civilized life before they were overwhelmed and absorbed by the dominant Celtic peoples. They were, for instance, the owners of flocks and herds; they knew enough of weaving to make clothes of linen and wool, and without the potter's wheel they could mould a plain and useful kind of earthenware. The stone querns” or hand-mills, and the seed-beds in terraces on the hills of Wales and Yorkshire, show their acquaintance with the growth of some kind of grain; while their pits and

of North and South Wales, Cumberland, Lanarkshire, Sutherland, and several parts of Ireland. The Danes of the Bronze Age were equally skilful in gold-work. Worsaae, Prim. Inhab. Denm. (Thoms's edit.) 138. Compare the account given by Herodotus of the Massagetæ, a Finnish nation in the neighbourhood of the Caspian Sea :-" They had no iron or silver, but plenty of gold and copper: their lances and axes were of copper, and their caps and belts were decorated with golden ornaments." (Herod. I. c. 215.)

1 Anc. Wilts, i. 114, 202. Dr. Thurnam describes a Dorsetshire barrow containing a perforated boar's tusk, and an urn at the feet of the skeleton containing the burnt bones of a fox or badger. (Archæol. xliii. 540.)

hut-circles prove that they were sufficiently civilized to live in regular villages.

At what time and by what process they became incorporated with the Celtic peoples must remain altogether uncertain. Where the rule of cremation has prevailed it is difficult to distinguish their ornaments and weapons from those of the Celtic type; and even where a roundheaded population still actually survives, it is usually hard to separate it from the stock of the later Danes. It is clear, however, that the older Bronze-Age tribes remained in some parts of the country as late as the period of the Roman invasion; and it seems probable that the further labours of philologists will confirm the theory that the languages of the Celts in Britain were sensibly influenced by contact with the idioms of those Finnish tribes who were the earlier occupants of the country. Examples to illustrate this theory will be found in a subsequent chapter.

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Beginning of the Historical period.-Theories of British Ethnology.-Fair and dark races.—Iberian theory.-Aquitanians.-Diversity of Iberian customs.—Basques.— Origin of Milesian legends.-Mr. Skene's view as to the Silures.-Ethnological table. - Survivals of the pre-Celtic stocks. Evidence from language and manners.- Comparison of Aryan customs.-Local names.- - Personal names.— Abnormal words and constructions.-Classical notices-Vitruvius, Tacitus, Herodian, Dion Cassius.—Caledonians and Picts.-Rock-carvings and sculptured stones. -Customs of succession.-Coronation-rites.-Relics of barbarism in mediæval Connaught and Wales.

IT

T has been claimed for the Bronze-Age men that their civilizing influence was as important in the north of Europe as that of the Celts in the west.1 We have seen, indeed, that before the beginning of history they had learned something of the arts of agriculture, and had introduced the knowledge of the useful metals. Coasting about the narrow seas they had occupied long stretches of land between the forest and the shore, and tracking the rivers backwards from their estuaries had built their camps on the open downs and wolds, or in the glades and clearings in the woods. We have seen that in our own country they were forced into contact with the people of a more primitive age, dark slight-limbed Silurians, and the dusky tribes who were called the children of the night. Some, according to their fortune in the wars, were driven by the new invaders into the western woods and deserts; others

1 See Worsaae. Prim. Inhab. Denmark (Thoms's edition), 135, 136.

were able to hold their own until in course of time the two races became fused and intermixed.

It is the object of this chapter to collect what is known about their descendants within the historical period. We shall endeavour to distinguish between the traces of the tall Finnish race and those of the more primitive settlers. It must remain impossible in many cases to separate the old forms of language and traces of primeval customs which are due to one or another of the prehistoric societies; but it will still be useful to deal collectively with the various traces of their presence, and to estimate what allowance is to be made for the continuance in an Aryan nation of foreign and primitive elements.

We have chosen the simplest of the theories propounded in a long debate. We have seen traces of at least two nations established in these islands before the era of the Celtic settlements. Some prefer to include in one wide description all the fair tribes of high stature with red or golden hair and blue or grey-blue eyes; and they count as true Celts all of that kind who were neither Danes nor Germans. Some class together in the same way all the short peoples with black hair and eyes, whether paleskinned or ruddy in complexion, calling them Iberians on account of their supposed affinity with the dark races remaining in the south of Europe. All the tall, roundheaded and broad-headed men are described together as comprising "the van of the Aryan army," with whom became intermingled tall dark and red-haired men from Scandinavia, and fair people of Low-German descent. All the short and dark races, whether long-headed or roundskulled, are treated as descendants of a primitive nonAryan stock, including "the broad-headed dark Welsh