CHAPTER IV.

OF CERTAIN UNDETERMINED AND FICTITIOUS LANGUAGES OF GREAT BRITAIN.

s. 191. The languages mentioned in the present chapter claim their place on one ground only,--_they have been the subject of controversy_. The notice of them will be brief. The current texts upon which the controversies have turned will be quoted; whilst the opinion of the present writer is left to be collected from the title of the chapter.

_The Belgae._--By some these are considered a Germanic rather than a Celtic tribe; the view being supported by the following extracts from Caesar:--"_Gallia est omnis divisa in tres partes; quarum unam incolunt Belgae, aliam Aquitani, tertiam, qui ipsorum lingua Celtae, nostra Galli, appellantur. Hi omnes lingua, institutis, legibus inter se differunt. Gallos--a Belgis Matrona et Sequana dividit._"--B. G. i. "_Belgae ab extremis Galliae finibus oriuntur._"--B. G. ii. "_Quum ab his quaereret, quae civitates, quantaeque in armis essent, et quid in bello possent, sic reperiebat: plerosque Belgas esse ortos a Germanis, Rhenumque antiquit[`u]s transductos, propter loci fertilitatem ibi consedisse; Gallosque, qui ea loca incolerent, expulisse; solosque esse qui patrum nostrorum memoria, omni Gallia vexata Teutones Cimbrosque intra fines suos ingredi prohibuerunt._"--B. G. ii. 4. "_Britanniae pars interior ab iis incolitur quos natos in insul[^a] ips[^a] memori[^a] proditum dicunt: maritima pars ab iis, qui praedae ac belli inferendi causa ex Belgio transierant._"--B. G. v. 12.

s. 192. The possibly Germanic origin of the Belgae, and the Belgic element of the British population, are matters which bear upon the question indicated in s. 10, or that of the Germanic influences anterior to A.D. 449. {133}

They have a still more important bearing, the historian over and above identifying the Belgae with the Germans, affirms _that what applies to the Belgae applies to the Picts_ also.

Now this is one of the arguments in favour of the doctrine exhibited (and objected to) in pp. 124-127, and the extent of questions upon which it bears, may be collected from the following quotation:--"A variety of other considerations might be mentioned, which, although they do not singly amount to proof, yet merit attention, as viewed in connexion with what has been already stated.

"As so great a part of the eastern coast of what is now called England was so early peopled by the Belgae, it is hardly conceivable that neither so enterprising a people, nor any of their kindred tribes, should ever think of extending their descents a little farther eastward. For that the Belgae and the inhabitants of the countries bordering on the Baltic, had a common origin, there seems to be little reason to doubt. The Dutch assert that their progenitors were Scandinavians, who, about a century before the common era, left Jutland and the neighbouring territories, in quest of new habitations.[29] The Saxons must be viewed as a branch from the same stock; for they also proceeded from modern Jutland and its vicinity. Now, there is nothing repugnant to reason in supposing that some of these tribes should pass over directly to the coast of Scotland opposite to them, even before the Christian era. For Mr. Whitaker admits that the Saxons, whom he strangely makes a Gaulic people, in the second century applied themselves to navigation, and soon became formidable to the Romans.[30] Before they could become formidable to so powerful a people, they must have been at least so well acquainted with navigation as to account it no great enterprise to cross from the shores of the Baltic over to Scotland, especially if they took the islands of Shetland and Orkney in their way.

"As we have seen that, according to Ptolemy, there were, in his time, different tribes of Belgae, settled on the northern {134} extremity of our country: the most natural idea undoubtedly is, that they came directly from the Continent. For had these Belgae crossed the English Channel, according to the common progress of barbarous nations, it is scarcely supposable that this island would have been settled to its utmost extremity so early as the age of Agricola.

"There is every reason to believe, that the Belgic tribes in Caledonia, described by Ptolemy, were Picts. For as the Belgae, Picts, and Saxons seem to have had a common origin, it is not worth while to differ about names. These frequently arise from causes so trivial, that their origin becomes totally inscrutable to succeeding ages. The Angles, although only one tribe, have accidentally given their name to the country which they invaded, and to all the descendants of the Saxons and Belgae, who were by far more numerous.

"It is universally admitted, that there is a certain national character, of an external kind, which distinguishes one people from another. This is often so strong that those who have travelled through various countries, or have accurately marked the diversities of this character, will scarcely be deceived even as to a straggling individual. Tacitus long ago remarked the striking resemblance between the Germans and Caledonians. Every stranger, at this day, observes the great difference and complexion between the Highlanders and Lowlanders. No intelligent person in England is in danger of confounding the Welsh with the posterity of the Saxons. Now, if the Lowland Scots be not a Gothic race, but in fact the descendants of the ancient British, they must be supposed to retain some national resemblance of the Welsh. But will any impartial observer venture to assert, that in feature, complexion, or form, there is any such similarity as to induce the slightest apprehension that they have been originally the same people?"[31]

It is doubtful, however, whether Caesar meant to say more than that over above certain differences which distinguished the Belgae from the other inhabitants of the common country _Gallia_, there was an intermixture of Germans.

{135}

The import of a possibly Germanic origin for the Belgae gives us the import of a possibly Germanic origin for--

s. 193. _The Caledonians._--A speculative sentence of Tacitus indicates the chance of the Caledonians being Germanic:--"_Britanniam qui mortales initio coluerint, indigenae an advecti, ut inter barbaros, parum compertum. Habitus corporum varii: atque ex eo argumenta: namque rutilae Caledoniam habitantium comae, magni artus, Germanicam originem adseverant._"--Agricola, xi.

The continuation of the passage quoted in s. 193 has induced the notion that there have been in Britain Spanish, Iberic, or Basque tribes:--"_Silurum colorati vultus, et torti plerumque crines, et posita contra Hispania, Iberos veteres trajecisse, easque sedes occup[^a]sse fidem faciunt._"--Agricola, xi.

As this, although an opinion connected with the history of the languages of Great Britain, is not an opinion connected with the history of the English language, it is a question for the Celtic, rather than the Gothic, philologist. The same applies to the points noticed in ss. 136-138. Nevertheless they are necessary for the purposes of minute philological analysis.

s. 194. As early as the year A.D. 1676, an opinion was advanced by[32] Aylett Sammes, in a work entitled Britannia Antiqua Illustrata, that the first colonisers of Ireland were the merchants of Tyre and Sidon. In confirmation of this opinion the existence of several Eastern customs in Ireland was adduced by subsequent antiquarians. Further marks of an Eastern origin of the Irish were soon found in the Gaelic dialect of that country. Finally, the matter (in the eyes at least of the national writers) was satisfactorily settled by the famous discovery, attributed to General Vallancey, of the true meaning of the Carthaginian lines in Plautus.

In the Little Carthaginian (Poenulus) of the Latin comic writer Plautus, a portion of the dialogue is carried on in the language of Carthage.

That the Punic language of Carthage should closely {136} resemble that of the mother-city Tyre, which was Phoenician; and that the Phoenician of Tyre should be allied to the language of Palestine and Syria, was soon remarked by the classical commentators of the time. Joseph Scaliger asserted that the Punic of the Poenulus _differed but little from pure Hebrew_--"_Ab Hebraismi puritate parum abesse._"

Emendated and interpreted by Bochart, the first ten lines of a speech in