HISTORY people. Whether these became extinct, or were absorbed by their successors, is not known. They were followed by Iberian, Ivernian, or Silurian invaders, a neolithic race of small size, dark skin and dark hair. To this Ivernian race belong chiefly the kistvaens and dolmens. Without doubt they left other traces, in speech and physiognomy, to this very day. Probably about ten centuries before Christ they them- selves had to yield to an invader. The Celts arrived. It is very evident that the Cornish race of to-day is partly Ivernian, partly Celtic ; very little Teutonic. Professor Huxley pro- claimed it to be more Celtic than Ireland. The first of the Celts to arrive entered Britain at the S.E., spreading westward and northward; they were the Goidels or Gaels. They con- quered the Ivernians, though that race showed enough vitality to bequeath its name to Ireland; and doubtless enslaved and intermarried with such as were not slain in battle. After the Goidelic branch had been in possession for perhaps six centuries or thereabout, it suffered invasion in its turn from the Brythonic tribes of the same great Aryan race. History re- peated itself The Britons gave their name and their language to the whole of England, leaving the Goidelic tongue to the Scotch Highlands and Ireland. At this present day Welsh is a Brythonic speech, Irish is Goidelic. In many parts the conquered race simply took the language, but was by no means exter- minated. 25
