time, no one in the district would have dared kill one.1 In Ireland, also, St. Colman's teal could be neither killed nor injured; St. Brendan provided an asylum for stags, wild-boars, and hares; and St. Beanus protected the crows and hazelhens, which build their nests upon the Ulster mountains.2 We may notice in this connection the fact that the names of several Celtic tribes, or the legends of their origin, show that an animal, or some other real or imag inary object, was chosen as a crest or emblem, and was probably regarded with a superstitious veneration. A powerful tribe or family would feign to be descended from a swan, or a water-maiden, or a "white lady," who rose from the moonbeams on the lake. The moon her. self was claimed as the ancestress of certain families. The legendary heroes are turned into "swan-knights," or fly away in the form of wild geese. We hear of "griffins" by the Shannon, and of "calves" in the country round Belfast. There are similar instances from Scotland, in such names as "clan chattan," or the "wild cats," and in the animal crests, which have been borne from the most ancient times as the emblems of the chieftains. The tribes who fought at Cattraeth are distinguished by the bard who sang their praises, as wolves, bears, or ravens; and the families which claim descent from Caradoc or Owain take the boar or the raven for their crest. The early Welsh poems are full of examples of the kind. Aneurin speaks of "Cian the Dog"; he calls his followers 'dogs of war," and describes the chieftain's house as "the stone, or castle of the white dogs." It seems reasonable, therefore, to suppose a connection between the law concerning the use of certain kinds of food, and the superstitious belief that each tribe had The sacred character of the animal is indicated by the legend of Boadicea, who, according to Dion Cassius, “loosed a hare from her robe, observing its movements as a kind of omen, and when it turned propitiously the whole multitude rejoiced and shouted."-Dion Cass., lxii, 3. 'Girald. Cambr., Topogr. Hibern., ii, cc. 29, 40. Compare the same writer's story of the loathing shown by the Irish chieftains on being offered a dish of roasted crow.-Conqu. Hibern., i, c. 31. Aneurin's Gododin, St. 9, 21, 30. There are many traces of the same practice among the Teutonic nations. Their heroes were believed, in many cases, to have descended from divine animals, like the children of Leda and Europa. The pedigrees of the Anglo-Saxon kings contain such names as Sigefugel, Safugol, and Beorn, which seem to be connected with legends of a descent from animals. Compare such patronymics as Wolf, Lyon, Stagg, Hogg, Hare, Wren, Dering, Harting, Baring, and the like. descended from the animal whose name it bore, and whose figure it displayed as a crest or badge. There are several Irish legends which appear to be based on the notion that a man might not eat of the animal from which he or his tribe was named. Such facts suggest inquiry as to whether the religion of the British tribes may not, in some early stage, have been connected with that system of belief under which animals were worshiped by tribes of men who were named after them, and were believed to be of their breed. This form of superstition prevails at the present day among our own Indians, as well as some South American tribes, among the natives of Australia, and in some of the African kingdoms; traces of its existence have also been found in the early history of the Germans, Greeks, and Latins, as well as in the traditions of the Semitic peoples in Arabia and Palestine.2 This brief sketch of early English history will give a general idea of the condition of the country and its inhabitants at the time of the first Roman invasion, which took place fifty-five years before our era. The details here presented will enable the student to follow intelligently the subsequent vicissitudes of the British nations, first under Roman rule, and afterward under Saxon dominion; and enable him to form an opinion as to the degree of Celtic influence that may have had its weight upon the character, mind, and language of the nation into which the original owners of the land have become to a great extent absorbed. In order to facilitate reference to the relative situation of Britain and the neighboring countries, whose people were to play such important parts in the island's destinies, and at the same time to avoid the confusion arising from maps covered with names belonging to different epochs, only the permanent features of the 1 In the story of the death of Cúchulain, contained in The Book of Leinster, some witches offer the hero a dog cooked on spits of rowan-wood. Cúchulain's name signified "the Hound of Culand," and was connected with the cult of a god called "Culand the Smith." The story turns on the idea that "one of the things he must not do was eating his namesake's flesh." See the translation of the story by Mr. Whitley Stokes, Revue Celtique, iii, 176; O'Curry, Mann. Anc. Irish, ii, 363. The system mentioned in the text is usually called "Totemism," from the word "totem" or "dodhaim," which the Indians apply to the plant, animal, or other natural object representing the ancestor and protector of the group of persons who share the name and crest. The "totem may not be eaten by any member of the group. Another rule provides that persons with the same totem" may not intermarry. For the theory of the wide distribution of " Totemism" among the nations of the ancient world see Encyclopædia Britannica, article, "The Family." land, such as mountains, rivers, sea-coasts, are indicated on the map accompanying this chapter. Enlarged copies of this map, or parts thereof, made by the student, and filled in by himself with historical as well as geographical details as the narrative proceeds, will be found far more instructive, and will make a more lasting impression. CHAPTER II. THE ROMAN CONQUEST OF BRITAIN. THERE is something at once mean and tragical about the story of the Roman Conquest. Begun as the pastime of a reckless despot, and carried on under a false expectation of riches, its mischief was certain from the beginning. Ill-armed country-folk were matched against disciplined legions and an infinite levy of auxiliaries. Vain heroism and ardent love of liberty were crushed in tedious and unprofitable wars. On the one side stand the petty tribes, prosperous nations in miniature, already enriched by commerce and rising to a homely culture; on the other the terrible Romans, strong in their tyranny and an avarice which could never be appeased. "If their enemy was rich, they were ravenous; if poor, they lusted for dominion; and not the East nor the West could satisfy them." They gained a province to ruin it by a slow decay. The conscription and the grinding taxes, the slavery of the many in the fields and mines, must be set against the wealth and comfort of the few, and the empty glory of belonging to the empire. Civilization was in one sense advanced, but all manliness had been sapped, and freedom had vanished from the country long before it fell an easy prey to the Angles and Saxons, who founded the English kingdom. The first invasions of Julius Cæsar had been followed by a century of repose. The fury of the civil wars secured a long oblivion of Britain; and, when the empire was established, the prudence of Augustus forbade the extension of the frontier. His glory was satisfied by the homage of a few British chieftains who came with gifts to the capitol, and the names of the "suppliant kings are still recorded in the imperial inscriptions. The wish of Augustus was law to his successors, and for two reigns the islanders were left to boast of their alliance with Rome. It had become the fashion among the leading 1 Tacitus, Agricolæ vita, c. 30. Romans to despise a country which was hardly worth a garrison. "It would require," said some, "at least a legion and some extra cavalry to enforce the payment of tribute, and then the military expenses would absorb all the increase of revenue." Others laughed at the exploits for which a three-weeks' thanksgiving had once seemed barely sufficient. "Divine Cæsar," they said, "landed his army in a swamp, and fled before the long-sought Britons." Too much, it was thought, had been made of a march along the high-road and the fording of a stockaded river; the legions had been forced back to the coast by an army of chariots and horsemen; no princes were sent as hostages, and no tribute had ever been paid. The invasion, however, was of greater importance than the critics were disposed to allow, though its effects were chiefly seen in an increased commerce with the Continent. It was the conquest of Gaul which most affected the British nations. The influence of the empire was felt and accepted by the continental Celts, and the provincial fashions found a crowd of imitators in the rustic kingdoms of the Thames. Another result of the conquest was an increase of the Gaulish settlements in Britain. Commius, the Prince of Arras, who once was sent by Cæsar as his envoy to Britain, took refuge from the Romans on the island which he had helped to invade, and the Atrebates were thenceforth established on the upper Thames. The Belga founded a settlement on the Solent, from which they spread westward to the mouth of the Severn, and built towns at Bath and Winchester (venta Belgarum). The Parisii left their island on the Seine, and settled in the fens of Wolverness, "all round the fair-havened bay."s The graves on the Yorkshire coast still yield the remains of their iron chariots and horse-trappings, and their ar mor, decorated with enamel and the red Mediterranean coral. The prosperity of the native states was indicated Εἶτα Territa quæsitis ostendit terga Britannis.-Lucan, Phars., ii, 571. * Πρὸς οἷς περὶ τὸν εὐλίμενον κόλπον, Παρίζοι, καὶ πόλις Πετουαρία. Ατρεβάτιοι καὶ πόλις Ναλκούα. . . . Πάλιν τοῖς μὲν Ἀτρεβατίοις καὶ τοῖς Καντίοις ὑπόκεινται Ῥῆγνοι, καὶ πόλις Νοιόμαγος, τοῖς δὲ Δοθουνοῖς, Βέλγαι.-Ptolem. Geographia, lib. ii, c. iii. The main city of the Parisii was Lutetia Parisiorum, now Paris. 4 Pliny says that coral had been used by the Gauls down to his time for ornamenting their armor.-Hist. Nat., xxxii, 11. That the art of enameling was not confined to the Continent is shown by a passage in the Imagines of Philostratus, where the philosopher informs the Empress Julia Domna that this |