There was thus an Iberian world before there was a Celtic world. One of
the pre-Celtic populations of the British Isles was probably Iberian;
and their type, besides leavening indefinitely a portion of the present
population, is still distinctly traceable in many of the dark-haired,
dark-eyed, and dark-skinned Irish, as well as occasionally in Great
Britain itself. The Basques, protected by their Pyrenean fastnesses, are
a still existent group of nearly pure Iberians; and of their tongue,
termed Euskaldune by its speakers, Duponceau long ago said:—“This
language, preserved in a corner of Europe, by a few thousand
mountaineers, is the sole remaining fragment of perhaps a hundred
dialects, constructed on the same plan, which probably existed and were
universally spoken, at a remote period, in that quarter of the world.
Like the bones of the mammoth, and the relics of unknown races which
have perished, it remains a monument of the destruction brought by a
succession of ages. It stands single and alone of its kind, surrounded
by idioms whose modern construction bears no analogy to it.”
The Bretons form another isolated but less distinct group of still
existent Iberians. To this day they present a striking contrast to the
population around them, who are of tall stature, with blue eyes, white
skins, and blond hair—communicative, impetuous, versatile—passing
rapidly from courage to timidity, and from audacity to despair;—in other
words, presenting the distinctive character of the Celtic race, now, as
in the ancient Gauls. The Bretons are entirely different. They are
taciturn—hold strongly to their ideas and usages—are persevering and of
melancholic temperament;—in a word, both in _morale_ and _physique_,
they present the type of a southern race. And this brings us to the
question—whence came these Iberians? M. Bodichon, a surgeon
distinguished for fifteen years in the French army of Algeria, observes
that persons who have lived in Brittany, and then go to Algeria, are
struck with the resemblance which they discover between the ancient
Armoricans (the Bretons) and the Cabyles of northern Africa. “In fact,
the moral and physical character of the two races is identical. The
Breton of pure blood has a bony head, light-yellow complexion of bistre
tinge, eyes black or brown, stature short, and the black hair of the
Cabyle. Like him, he instinctively hates strangers. In both, the same
perverseness and obstinacy, the same endurance of fatigue, same love of
independence, same inflexion of voice, same expression of feelings.
Listen to a Cabyle speaking his native tongue, and you will think you
hear a Breton talking Celtic.” Impressed with this resemblance, M.
Bodichon was induced to reflect on the subject, and at last came to the
conclusion that the Berbers who primally peopled Northern Africa, and
the dark-skinned Iberians of Western Europe, belonged to the same race.
He thinks that, as Europe and Africa were once united at their western
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