Celtic Britain [antikvár]

CELTIC BRITAIN. CHAPTER I. britain in the time of julius CJESAR. The Celts form, in point of speech, a branch of the great group of nations which has been variously called Aryan, Indo-European, Indo-Germanic, Indo-Celtic, and Japhetic, while the other branches are represented by the Italians, the Greeks, the Teutons, the Litu-Slaves, the Armenians, the Persians, and the chief peoples of Hindustan. The respective places of these nations in the geography of the Old World give, roughly speaking, a very fair idea of their relative nearness to one another as to language. Thus the gulf is widest between the Celtic languages and Sanskrit or Zend, and narrowest between Celtic and Latin, while it is comparatively narrow between the Celtic and Teutonic languages, among which is included English, the speech destined in time to supersede the still living idioms of the insular Celt. Now the Celts of antiquity who appeared first and oftenest in history were those of Gallia, which, having been modified by the French into Gaule, we term Gaul. It included the France and Switzerland of the present day, and much territory besides. This people had various names.