The points then of contact between the British Isles and the Continent of Europe, were two in number. They were far apart, and the nations that visited them were different. Both, indeed, were in the south; but one was due east, the other due west. The first, or Kentish Britain, was described late, described by Cæsar, commercially and politically connected with Gaul, and known to a great extent from Gallic accounts. The second, or Cornish Britain, was in political and commercial relation with the Phœnician portions of Spain and Africa, or with Phœnicia itself; was known to the cotemporaries of Herodotus, and was associated with Ireland in more than one notice. Both were British. But who shall answer for the uniformity of manners throughout? It is better to be on our guard against the influence of general terms, and to limit rather than extend certain accounts of early writers. A practice may be called British, and yet be foreign to nine-tenths of the British Islands. There were war-chariots in Kent and in Aberdeenshire, and so far war-chariots were part of the British armoury; but what authority allows us to attribute to the old Cornishmen and Devonians? Better keep to particulars where we can. As the ancient name for the populations of Cornwall and Devonshire was _Damnonii_, the _Damnonii_ will be dealt with separately. It will be time enough to call them Britons when a more general term becomes necessary. Two-thirds of the notice of them have been given already in the extracts from Strabo and Diodorus, in which the long beards and black dress must be noticed for the sake of contrast. No such description would suit the Britons of the eastern coast. The so-called _Orphic_ poem places the _wide houses of the goddess Demeter_ in Britain. Standing by itself, this is a mysterious passage. But it has been said that an extract from Avienus will help to explain it-- ----"Hic chorus ingens Faminei cœtus pulchri colit orgia Bacchi. Producit noctem ludus sacer; aera pulsant Vocibus, et crebris late sola calcibus urgent. Non sic Absynthi prope flumina Thracis alumnæ Bistonides, non qua celeri ruit agmine Ganges, Indorum populi stata curant festa Lyæo." There were maddening orgies amongst the sacred rites of the Britons--orgies, that whilst they reminded one writer of the Bacchic dances, reminded another of the worship of Demeter. That these belonged to the western Britons is an inference from the fact of their being mentioned by the Greek writers, _i.e._, from those who drew most from Phœnician authorities. Avienus, as we have seen, thinks of the Bacchæ as a parallel. So does Pausanius-- "Nec spatii distant Nesidum litora longe; In quibus uxores Amnitum Bacchica sacra Concelebrant, hederæ foliis tectæque corymbis."