The traditional name for the men of the {13} New Stone Age is the Iberians. Before the Celtic invasion a more or less homogeneous people inhabited the British Isles, France, Spain, and northern Italy. The use of the term "Mediterranean" as a substitute for Iberian has been suggested. To its use there is only one real objection, and that is that it is almost wholly devoid of meaning. Some recent writers, rejecting both these terms, have used the term "Hamitic," a family of languages closely allied to the Semitic. This novel theory has been based upon two grounds: (1) The Irish and Welsh languages, although drawing their vocabulary from Celtic or Aryan sources, have a syntax paralleled in Berber and Egyptian. No one who has seen them can fail to perceive the remarkable similarity between the physiognomy of the Berber peoples of northern Africa and the prevailing type of South Wales Welshman. (2) There is identity of culture and of religion not only between the Neolithic inhabitants of Britain and those of North Africa, but also between them and the people of Egypt and Babylon. A high stage of civilization was attained by these people. The building of Stonehenge would in itself be proof enough of their engineering skill. It is likely that there was {14} continuous contact between Britain in those days and the great cradles of civilization--the valleys of the Nile, the Tigris, and the Euphrates--and that traders brought to the distant isle not only foreign wares but new knowledge and up-to-date ideas. When, or how, the Stone Age passed into the Age of Bronze we do not know. Bronze was used in Egypt at least as early as the fourth millennium B.C., and in all likelihood it was introduced into Britain in the ordinary course of trade. Whencesoever it came, there can be no doubt that it speedily wrought a complete revolution in men's way of living. In Britain bronze was not the only metal to be largely used. There were famous gold mines in Ireland, copper in Wales, and tin in Cornwall. The men of the New Stone Age had displayed none of their predecessors' love of drawing; but they immediately evinced a most remarkable aptitude for working in gold and bronze. Torques, rings, and bracelets of extreme beauty have been discovered belonging to this period. As the country was sparsely populated there was room enough for wave after wave of immigrants. The newcomers would not be regarded altogether as foreigners, for in race, language, and {15} civilization the inhabitants of both sides of the English Channel were identical. Thus the new mingled peaceably with the old without any of the fierce struggles which form so hideous an aspect of the later migrations.