Blair Collection > Celtic gleanings, or, Notices of the history and literature of the Scottish Gael

LECTUJIE II. 6i
land at all, if the Cimbric Chersonesus be held to
be the original territory of the Cymri. South
of the Rhine the evidence for the existence of
Celtic races is abundant. In France we have
both history and topography combining in af-
fording it. So is it with Switzerland. The
writings of CaBsar alone are sufficient to show
that the ancient inhabitants of France were
Gael ; and his testimony receives strong corro-
boration from the name Gallia, which the coun-
try bore. But we have remnants of the same
race scattered over a surface much wider than
France. Like the fossils of our ancient geo-
logical periods, they may be dug up from the
depths of Grecian topography. A Celtic root
("Cathair," "a city") appears in the Greek word
Corinth ; while in every 'xoXig in the land, we
have not only the -roX/g of the Greek, but the
" Baile" of the Celt. In Italy the traces are no
less abundant. There, too, there must have
been an early Celtic race, whether Italy was peo-
pled from Greece, or, as Dr Latham thinks,
Greece from Italy. The word " Tiber '' con-
tains in it the Celtic " tabh," " water," a word
which we have in our "Loch Taibh" and "Uisge
Thaibh,"— "Loch Tay ," and the "Water of Tay.''
It was not without reasons of more kinds than
one, that the Eoman soldiers could exclaim, as