BOOK I. on their heads, but shaved it from the other parts popu THE aspect of the country, as it first struck their view, presented a succession of forests, lakes, and great rivers and Mela remarks of it, what must have been true of most parts of Europe, where agriculture was little practised, that it was more adapted to the kindly nourishment of cattle than of men. He also represents the people in general as not only uncivilised, but as much behind the nations on the continent in their social culture. Their cattle and fields were their general wealth, and they seem to have been acquainted with no other." LIKE all barbaric tribes, who have reached their stations at successive periods, or have grown up in separate and independent states, and whose active spirits are not occupied by the pursuits of civilised life, they were perpetually at war with each other"; and it is probable that the present state and people of New Zealand exhibit more nearly than any other, the condition of Britain when the Romans entered it. THE Britons were taller than the Gauls, but not 4 Cæsar. 5 Mela, lib. iii. c. 6. Cicero gives us the impression of his day on this subject. In a letter to Atticus he says, "It is known that there is not a scruple of money in the island; nor any hope of booty, but in slaves," lib. iv. ep. 17. It is curious to read this remark now, when Britain is the wealthiest country of Europe. 6 Mela, ib. Herodian speaks of the Britons as a most warlike nation, eager for slaughter," lib. iii. p. 83. As already hinted, I consider the British History of Jeffry of Monmouth a tissue of fic tion, though it may have preserved some real names, traditions, and circumstances: but it is impossible to separate in it the true from the invented. V. so strong. The young Britons whom Strabo saw CHAP. at Rome, were higher by half a foot than the tallest man there, but their lower limbs were not straight; nor did the general outline of their make display the symmetry of beauty. Their hair was less yellow than that of the Gauls.' The Silures are mentioned with ruddy cheeks and curled hair: and the inhabitants of Caledonia with red hair. As the Belgæ in Gaul wore loose breeches and a waistcoat with sleeves, instead of a tunic; and a sagum or upper garment, we may suppose that their settlers in Britain used the same dress. Bonduca's royal costume when she addressed the Britains, was long yellow hair, with a large golden torques; and a XITO or tunic swelling round her bosom in various colours, with a thick cloak thrown over it.10 The Britons had gold rings on their middle finger."1 THEIR houses, chiefly formed of reeds or wood, were very numerous, like those of the Gauls, and were usually seated in the midst of woods, perhaps for better defence, as those of the New Zealanders are, for the same reason, placed on fortified hills. The wars of fierce and rude men, unacquainted with military discipline, or disdaining to submit to it, usually consist of attempts to surprise and 7 Strabo, lib. iv. p. 305. 8 Tacitus, Agric. Vit. Rutilatæ Comæ, Livy notices of the Gauls, lib. xxxviii. c. 17. 9 Strabo, 300. 11 Pliny, lib. xxxiii. c. 6. of life, ibid. c. 4. gold, ibid. c. 13. 10 Xiph. epit. Dio. p. 169. This author remarks that the person, who first put rings on the fingers, introduced one of the worst crimes The proximum scelus was coining money from The use of rings as a personal distinction for men has so greatly declined, that even Pliny would not have thought them to have a very wicked tendency. They are worn now but as a petty ornament, not as in his time for fastidious pomp. I. BOOK ravage; and therefore precautions against sudden aggressions are the most essential parts of their defensive skill. The Britons seem to have cleared a space in the wood, on which they built their huts and folded their cattle; and they fenced the avenues by ditches and barriers of trees. Such a collection of houses formed one of their towns.12 14 THEY had great quantities of cattle.13 Some of the British tribes are said not to have had the art of making cheese, though they had abundance of milk; others knew nothing of either agriculture or gardening. They housed their corn in the ear, in subterraneous places, and threshed out no more than served them for the day. The little money which they had, was of the Spartan kind; it was either copper or iron rings, of a definite weight.16 15 THEY thought it a crime to eat hares, geese, or hens, though they bred them for pleasure. One of their most extraordinary and pernicious customs was, that community of women among ten or twelve men, who chose to form such an association, which reminds us of the Arreoys of Otaheite. The British Arreoys, however, seem not to have destroyed their children; as these were agreed to 12 Strabo, lib. iv. p. 306. Cæsar. lib. v. c. 17. Diod. Sic. lib. v. p. 301. 13 Cæsar. lib. v. c. 10. 14 Strabo, lib. iv. p. 305. 15 Diod. lib. v. p. 301. Pliny notices that they used a species of lime as a manure, which he calls white chalk, lib. xvii. c. 4. 16 Cæsar. lib. v. c. 10. It is supposed that Cunobelin, the suc- of his coins, with his own name, have come down to the present bard with his harp, ibid. c. 7. sect. 5. be considered as the offspring of the man who had CHAP. married the mother." IN battle their chief strength was in their infantry.18 But they fought also on horses, and more especially in chariots, with scythes at the axles." In these they rode, throwing darts on every side; and, by the dread of the horses, and the noise of the wheels, they often disordered their opponents. When they had broken in among the horse, they leaped from the cars, and fought on foot. The drivers retired a little out of the battle, but so stationed themselves, as to be ready to receive the combatants if pressed by the enemy. Thus, to the activity of cavalry, they united the steadiness of infantry. By daily use and practice, they were so expert, that they could stop their horses at full speed down a declivity, could guide and turn them, run along the beam, stand on the yoke, and from thence, with rapidity, dart into their chariots. 20 Diodorus, in mentioning the British war-chariots, recalls to our mind, that the heroes of the Trojan war used them likewise; there was, however, this difference, that among the Britons the driver was the superior person. 21 THE honourable testimony of Diodorus to their superiority to the Romans in some of those moral virtues, in which the nomadic nations excelled the civilised, must not be omitted. "There is a simplicity in their manners, which is very different from that craft and wickedness which mankind 17 Cæsar. lib. v. c. 10. 19 Mela, lib. iii. c. 6. 21 Diod. lib. v. p. 301. Tacit. Vit. Agr. 18 Tacitus. 20 Cæsar. lib. iv. c. 29. Honestior auriga; clientes propugnant. V. BOOK Their re ligion. now exhibit. They are satisfied with a frugal sustenance, and avoid the luxuries of wealth." 22 THE religion of the Britons was of a fierce and sanguinary nature. It resembled that of the Gauls, which is thus described. They who were afflicted with severe disease, or involved in dangers or battles, sacrificed men for victims, or vowed that they would do so. The Druids administered at these gloomy rites. They thought that the life of a man was to be redeemed by a man's life; and that there was no other mode of conciliating their gods. Some made images of wicker work of an immense size, and filled them with living men, whom they burned alive. Thieves and robbers, or other criminals, were usually made the victims ; but if there were a deficiency of these, the guiltless were sacrificed. 23 At some of their sacred rites the British women went naked, but stained dark, like Ethiopians, by a vegetable juice. That they consulted their gods on futurity, by inspecting the quivering flesh of their human victims, and that they had prophetic women, has been already mentioned. 25 On THEIR Superstitious fancies deemed the misseltoe sacred, if it vegetated from the oak. They selected groves of oaks, and thought every thing sent from heaven which grew on this tree. the sixth day of the moon, which was the beginning of their months and years, and of their period of thirty years, they came to the oak on 22 Diod. p. 301. 24 Pliny, lib. xxii. c. 2. 23 Cæsar. lib. vi. c. 15. 25 See before, p. 43. That the Kelts sacrificed human victims to a deity, whom the Greeks called Kronos, and the Latins Saturn, we learn from Dionysius Halic. lib. i. p. 30. |