infer them to have been—by rival Septs impeding their progress towards the East. To the East of the Basque and Celtic regions we find the rest of Europe possessed by the Teutons or Germans, the Finns, the Sclavonians, and the Greeks, nations all located in countries closely contiguous to Asia, to the inhabitants of which continent the evidence of language indisputably proves them all to have been closely related.(17) That these nations were also the primitive inhabitants of the territories which they still occupy has been pointed out by Dr. Prichard. The conclusion above suggested appears to be supported by the evidence of history. With respect to the Basques, or Iberians, Dr. Prichard has referred to the testimony of classical authorities, which distinctly confirms the opinion that they were an African race. But with regard to the Celts, the same learned writer assumes that they must originally have come from the East. It is remarkable, however, that this conclusion is directly at variance with the current opinions of the Ancients, to which he has referred in the following passage: “The earlier history of the Celtic people is a subject of great interest, but of difficult investigation. Were they the aborigines of Gaul or Germany? According to all the testimony of history, or rather of ancient tradition collected by the writers of the Roman Empire, the _migrations of the Gauls were_ always _from West to East_; the Celtic nations in _Germany as well as in Italy_ and in _the East_, were supposed to have been colonies _from Gaul_, and the Celtæ have been considered as the immemorial inhabitants of _Western Europe_!” (Ethnography of the Celtic Race, in Prichard on Man.) In assuming that the Celts migrated to Europe direct from Asia, Dr. Prichard’s views were very naturally influenced by the valuable evidence he has himself adduced of the connexion of the Celtic dialects with the Sanscrit, &c. This evidence, however, has been shown (see p. 19) to be quite consistent with the conclusion suggested above, viz. that the Celts may have sprung from emigrants who penetrated into Spain from the opposite coast of Africa. The interesting researches of Humboldt, which have served by the evidence of local names to show that the language of the ancient Iberians was the same as the Basque, have also established, by means of the same evidence, that the Peninsula of Spain, at the time of its subjugation by the Romans, was divided in a very irregular manner between Basque and Celtic tribes. “The Celts,” observes Dr. Prichard, “possessed a considerable part of Spain, comprehending not only the central provinces, but also extensive territories in both of the western corners of the Peninsula, where a population either wholly or partly of Celtic descent remained at the period of the Roman Conquest.” The remainder of Spain was held by Basques or by Celt-Iberian tribes, a mixture of both races.