APPENDIX. Primitive Races and their respective Dialects. THE various points of inquiry, which are merely glanced at in this Appendix, the writer has not yet enjoyed the opportunity of investigating to the extent he could have wished. He attaches, therefore, nothing of that importance to them which is generally felt when any favourite theory is to be defended; and if, by those who are more conversant with these subjects, he should be found incorrect in any particular, this will neither affect the argument of the preceding pages, nor weaken our obligations with regard to the present race of the Native Irish. Among the learned men who have studied the subject of European antiquities, there seems to be but one opinion with regard to the quarter from whence the great body of her population came. They all profess to discover a rolling tide proceeding from the east,-wave following after wave, -the weaker giving way to, or pushed forward before, the more powerful; and though to point out the abode of all the Nomade tribes in given periods may be beyond the power of human research, yet writers of the most opposite opinions agree in regarding the most westerly as the most primitive or ancient nations. First in the possession of the soil, at the very dawn of history we see them first disturbed, and never having been entirely destroyed, remnants of them still remain. Without any discordance of sentiment, we may advance at least one step farther. The indications of three distinct and successive populations are generally recognised by all the best authorities-two pervading the western and northern regions of Europe, and the third its eastern frontiers. These three, according to various authors, are the Celta, the Goths or Scythians, and the Slavonians; or the Celta, the Teutones, and the Sauromatæ of Dr Murray. Without multiplying authorities, or proceeding farther back, it may be remarked, that Dr Percy, the bishop of Dromore, in the year 1770, distinctly marked two of these the Celtic and the Gothic,- -a distinction recognised by Mr Pinkerton, notwithstanding his opinions respecting the former. To these the third is now generally added, the Sarmatian. Other nations more recently entered, but these are the main sources of the ancient European population. It is to the first of these three, confessedly the most western division of this great European family, that our attention is here directed. 6 Upon opening the map of Herodotus by Major Rennel, we find the Cynetæ and Iberi on the western shores of Europe, and immediately behind the former at least, the Celta. The repeated assurances of Herodotus, that, although in his time the Celts had spread from the Danube to the Pillars of Hercules, there was another nation still farther west, called the Cynetæ or Cynesii, accounts for this distribution on the map. "These Celte are found beyond the Columns of Herculus; they border on the Cynesians, the most remote of all the nations who inhabit the western parts of Europe;" and, referring again to the Celtæ, he adds,-" who, except the Cynetæ, are the most remote inhabitants in the west of Europe. Strabo, when referring to the Cantabrians, mentions the Cantabri Conisci.'+ Festus Avienus, in the beginning of the fifth century, or about 870 years later than Herodotus, notices the Cynestes, as a people inhabiting the border of Spain and Portugal. In many later writers we read of those who are called the Cunei, and in the Welsh triads we meet with a people denominated the Cynet. Modern authors have not entirely overlooked this ancient and primitive race. Beyond the Celtic hordes," says Townsend, "in the utmost extremities of Europe, towards the setting sun, the Cynetæ (Kunta) either fed their flocks, or more probably were to be numbered among the hunting tribes.§ Herodotus," says Mr Sharon Turner, "places a people, whom he calls Cunesioi, beyond the Celts." the history of European languages by Dr Murray, while he 66 66 In 1620. Herod. Euterpe, 33. Melpom. 49. † Strabo, lib. III. p. 162. ed. Paris, ranks the Native Irish under the general term of Celta, he uniformly speaks of them as the most primitive divisionthe original stem which had penetrated in the earliest ages into the west of Europe. But the Iberi as well as the Cynetæ are placed by Herodotus on the western shores of Europe. Now Dionysius Perieges (verse 281), about the commencement of the Christian era, mentions them in the same position :: On Europe's farthest western border dwell Th' Iberians, who in warlike might excel. And Strabo, in his description of Gaul, confirms the statement of Herodotus, that the Iberians were a separate nation from the Celts. Speaking of the inhabitants of Gaul, seemingly with reference to the account which Julius Cæsar had given of them half a century before, he says, "Some have divided them into three portions, denominated Aquitani, Belgæ, and Celtæ; but the Aquitani differ from the rest entirely, not only in language but in person, and resemble the Iberi more than the Celta. As for the others, their appearance is Celtic; their language is not wholly the same, but in some respects varies a little; in government and manners they are nearly alike."* The other inhabitants of Gaul, here contrasted with the Aquitani, seems to evince that Gaul as well as Spain was anciently occupied by people of two distinct nations, of which the more eastern were the Celtæ, the more western the Iberi and Cynetæ. With regard to Britain, Cæsar affirms, that "its interior part was inhabited by those who were immemorially natives of the island, but the maritime part by those who had passed thither from the Belgæ, intent on predatory hostilities."+ Tacitus, a century later, says, that those who dwelt " nearest to the Gauls resembled them," but that "the brown complexions and curling hair of the Silures intimated that the ancient Iberians had passed over from Spain, and had occupied that part of Britain.” The Iberians, however, had certainly stretched into Aquitain (according to Pliny formerly called Armorica), and it is possible that the migration now referred to, might be from Gaul rather than Spain. The connexion between the early inhabitants of Ireland and those of Britain will be again adverted to; though here * Strabo, lib. IV. p. 319. See Greatheed's Inquiries respecting the Origin of the British Isles. Archæologia, vol. XVI. part 1. p. 98. † Be Bello Gallico, lib. V. cap. 12. Vita Agricolæ. we may observe, that, notwithstanding the fables with which it has been intermingled, the Irish tradition, which states their ancestors to have come from Spain, appears worthy of credit. Even the sceptical may admit this as likely to account for part of its inhabitants, as it is not inconsistent with the certainty that there were other immigrations. In giving these brief and imperfect notices of the primitive populations, it seemed expedient not to overlook the denominations given to the most western, although they are by most writers only glanced at and then dismissed, or lost in the general term of Celtic. Though in the present stage of inquiry into the original populations of Britain, and the western shores of the European continent, some will hesitate to admit the entire theory of Mr Greatheed in the Archæologia, it is at least possible that the scattered rays of evidence may even yet lead to the conclusion, not only that the people now denominated Native Irish, being the farthest west now, were the farthest west then; but that, sprung from the most primitive division of the Celtæ, they may be traced as descendents of the ancient Iberi or Cynetæ, if these were not in fact one people, speaking, it is probable, kindred dialects. Granting, however, that these terms were dropped, and that the Irish are to be considered as a branch of the great Celtic family, we now briefly notice the light in which they have been thus regarded. 66 In taking a view of the original, or at least the ancient population of Europe, Dr Murray gives a place to the Native Irish, which he carefully preserves throughout both of his volumes. "The primary tribes of Europe are," he says, as is generally known, 1st, The Celta, ancestors of the Irish; 2d, The Cymri, progenitors of the Welsh, Cornish, and Armoricans.". "In the west of Gaul, and in Britain, there is evidence to presume that the greater part of the population consisted of that division of the Celtic race whose posterity now possesses the name of Cymri;* but in Ireland the population was wholly Celtic, of that original stem which had penetrated in the earliest ages into Gaul, Spain, and the British Isles."-The ancestors of the Cymri were of Celtic origin, but they had remained nearer to the east, in the heart of Europe, while their kindred reached the Atlantic ocean. Savage war and emigration at length drove the Cymri before the Teutones into the west, whence they *This title, borne by the present Welsh, is not very ancient; nor was it given to their ancestors in Gaul or Britain in the time of Cæsar.-Murray, vol. II. p. 315. expelled the Celta, and took possession of Gaul and Britain.' -Again he says," The allies of the German Cimbri and Teutones were not Celts of the Irish division. That primitive race had been expelled from the continent, a few tribes only excepted, before the dawn of history." The primitive populations of Europe have, for several generations, formed a standing subject of controversy, to which, unquestionably, the confounding of generic with confederative terms, and the want of accurate acquaintance with the languages spoken, have contributed. At least it is surprising to see the confidence which has been maintained by some who had not thought it to be essential that they should first thoroughly investigate the colloquial dialects. If languages are admitted to a certain extent to be the pedigree of nations, the forlorn hope of greater unanimity seems to rest on such investigations, provided they are conducted with due patience and candour. Some languages, it is true, have undergone great changes, and words remaining have entirely changed their meaning; though, after all, language is one of the most enduring and unchangeable things with which we are acquainted, both with regard to its terms and even its very tones or accent. The productions of the soil may, in many instances, be torn up and exported, or the manners and customs of a people may so change, that the relics which remain shall baffle the severest scrutiny; but not so their language: this remains and descends like their family-features, and whether neglected or proscribed, long survives all such treatment. If, in addition to this quality of endurance, the changes to which any language has been exposed, should be found in general to have in fact only obeyed a law, then the investigation becomes, not only more interesting and precise, but the access to the antiquity of nations by this line is less affected by the lapse of time than that of any other with which we are acquainted. A different opinion indeed has been entertained by some, and we do not forget the idea of Horace : As when the forest with the bending year So an old race of words maturely dies, And some, new born, in youth and vigour rise; Others in present credit soon shall die, If custom will, whose arbitrary sway, Words, and the forms of language, must obey. But a simile, however beautiful, is no argument, and better |