New-York tribune. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1866-1924, 1882-03-26
THE british CELTS.

What sort of people, ask Grant Allen in
Knorledge, were the pure FLOODED Cells who
first came to Britain They were undoubt-
edly he repies Il light-sknned, fair haired,
blne-eyed and round headed race-in fact,
tvpicai Aryans of the same sort as the modern
Germans, and possessed at exactly those pecu-
liarites which are ordinarily spoken OF as
Anglo-SaxOn. About tins there can be no ms
take Their barrows, known both by their
shape and by their bronze Implements contain
round skulls. quite different from the long
skulls of the Euskarians and the universal
testimony of the Roman writers. whose knowl,
edge of the Celts was obtained while they sun
lived in comparative purity in Gaul and South
eastern Britain, makes it certain that they bad
light hair, white skin and blue eyes. How,
then, comes it that most people think OF the
Celtic type as essentially dark and black haired.
The reason Is this. When the Celts conquered
Britain, they left large numbers OF Euskarlans
alive. in the northern and western part of the
island at least and it is the mixed Celtic and
Euskarian descendants of these people who
now form the so-called Cells of the Highlands,
Lancashire, North Wales and Cornwall:
Moreover, it is certain that the Euskarlans of
the conquered districts soon learned to speak
Celtic alone, just as the Irish are now fast
learning TO speak English alone; and so after a
short time they became as indstingnishable
from the true Cclts as NOrmanS and Danes In
England have become indistinguishablc from
the rest of The community. Even the SllurcS,
who maintained their position as an lndepcn-
dent Euskarian tribe III south Wales, seem to
have acquired the use of the Celtic Welsh
tongue before the date of the Roman invasion.
When contrasted with the Teutonic English, all
these Celtc-speaking peoples came materially ut
a later period To be regarded rs Cells
CURIOUS ELECTRICAL PHENOMENA.
A correspondent of Nature, writing from
Savoch AherdeenshiTc. Tells of a curious incl
dent which recently befcl him. lon February
no saws this part of Scotland visited
by furious gale of wind, rain sleet and hail.
Near the end of the storm was startled by
vivid fash of lightning close at hand, but with
out thunder At the same instant found my
self enyelOped i'll sheet OF pale tilckerIng
white light. 1t seemed to proceed from every
part of my clothes, especially on the side least
exposed to the hail. and more particularly and
brightly from my arm, shoulder and head:
Though | turned about pretty smartly AMI
shifted my position, found it impossible to
shake off the tlickering flames. | felt no I'M
usual sensation beyond the singing of the hail,
and no sound except that of the storm. have
puzzled myself to account for the strange phe-
nomenon, and can only imagine 1t 10 have been
a peculiar manifestation OF st. Elmos hre so
well known to sailors during thundeT-storms
within the tropics
Another correspondent relates q somewhat
similar experience. Two men on dark night
were climbing a rocky, heathery heIght III
Hammock and were all at once set on tameS NY
some mysterious fire, which appeared to pro-
coed from the heather, which they were traverS-
ING. The more they tried to rub the flames off
the more tenaciously they seemed 10 adhere,
and the more the fire increased III brightness
and magnitude. Moreover the long heather,
agitated by their feet, emitted streams OF burn
ing vapor, and for the space of few minutes
they were in the greatest CONSERVATION. They
believed that they barely escaped living Gre
nation. Without doubt tie object of their fear
was st. Elmos fire.