Such germs of literary life as the Teutons possessed were enshrined in ballads, such as all nations possess in some form. The re-echoes of these have come down to us in the earliest known poems by men of Teutonic race, all of which are unfortunately of very recent date. All are distinguished by the principle of versifying which is essentially Teutonic; the trusting of the cadence, not to an exact measurement of syllables or quantities, but to the pauses or beats of the voice in repetition, the effect of these beats being heightened by the use of alliteration. Poems of this true Teutonic character, though many of them in their present shape are late in date, are the well-known old German lay of _Hadubrand and Hildebrand_, the old Scandinavian poems which we call Eddic poems, our old English poem _Beowulf_, and the _Bard’s Tale_ and the _Fight of Finnesburg_, and finally that long German poem called the _Nibelungen_, or say the poem out of which this long one has been made. These poems repeat old mythic legends, many of which have for centuries been handed down from father to son, and display the mythology and religion of our German ancestors, such as in a former chapter we endeavoured to sketch them out. Slight as they are, they are of inestimable value, in that they help us to read the mind of heathen Germany, and to weigh the significance of the last great revolution in Europe’s history--a revolution wherein we, through our ancestors, have taken and through ourselves are still taking part, and in which we have therefore so close an interest. But having carried the reader down to this point, our task comes to an end. Even for Europe, the youngest born as it were in the world’s history, when we have passed the epoch of Teutonic invasion, the star of history _sera rubens_ has definitely risen. Nations from this time forward emerge more and more into the light, and little or nothing falls to the part of pre-historic study. APPENDIX. NOTES AND AUTHORITIES. ⁂ For the convenience of the reader, authorities are cited whenever it is possible in an English form, and if not in an English, in a French. CHAPTERS I. AND II. Christy and Lartet, _Reliquiæ Aquitanicæ_. Davis and Thurnam, _Crania Britannica_. Dawkins, _Cave Hunting_. Dawkins, _Early Man in Britain_. Evans, _Stone Implements of Great Britain_. Evans, _Bronze Implements of Great Britain_. Geikie, _The Great Ice Age_. Greenwell, _British Barrows_. Keller, _The Lake-Dwellings of Switzerland_ (trs. Lee). Lyell, _Antiquity of Man_. Lubbock, _Pre-historic Times_. Mortillet, _Origine de la Navigation et de la Pêche_. Mortillet, _Promenades Préhistoriques à l’Exposition_. Mortillet, _Le Préhistorique, L’Antiquité de l’homme_. Montelius, _La Suède Préhistorique_. Tylor, _Anthropology_. Tylor, _Early History of Mankind_. Tylor, _Primitive Culture_. Troyon, _Habitations Lacustres_. Worsaae, _The Pre-history of the North_ (trs. Simpson).