a
contemporary of the Conqueror, gives them also in one passage the same
name. Still, it is true that the Normans were generally very tenacious
of their distinction from their gallant but hostile neighbours.

[158] The present town and castle of Conway.

[159] See CAMDEN's Britannia, "Caernarvonshire."

[160] When (A.D. 220) the bishops, Germanicus, and Lupus, headed the
Britons against the Picts and Saxons, in Easter week, fresh from their
baptism in the Alyn, Germanicus ordered them to attend to his war-cry,
and repeat it; he gave "Alleluia." The hills so loudly re-echoed the
cry, that the enemy caught panic, and fled with great slaughter. Maes
Garmon, in Flintshire, was the scene of the victory.

[161] The cry of the English at the onset of battle was "Holy Crosse,
God Almighty;" afterwards in fight, "Ouct, ouct," out, out.--HEARNE's
Disc. Antiquity of Motts.

The latter cry, probably, originated in the habit of defending their
standard and central posts with barricades and closed shields; and thus,
idiomatically and vulgarly, signified "get out."

[162] Certain high places in Wales, of which this might well be one,
were so sacred, that even the dwellers in the immediate neighbourhood
never presumed to approach them.

[163] See Note (L), at the end of the volume.

[164] See Note (M), at the end of the volume.

[165] The Welch seem to have had a profusion of the precious metals very
disproportioned to the scarcity of their coined money. To say nothing of
the torques, bracelets, and even breastplates of gold, common with their
numerous chiefs, their laws affix to offences penalties which attest the
prevalent waste both of gold and silver. Thus, an insult to a sub-king of
Aberfraw is atoned by a silver rod as thick as the King's little finger,
which is in length to reach from the ground to his mouth when sitting;
and a gold cup, with a cover as broad as the King's face, and the
thickness of a ploughman's nail, or the shell of a goose's egg. I
suspect that it was precisely because the Welch coined little or no
money, that the metals they possessed became thus common in domestic use.
Gold would have been more rarely seen, even amongst the Peruvians, had
they coined it into money.

[166] Leges Wallicae.

[167] Mona, or Anglesea.

[168] Ireland.

[169] The Welch were then, and still are, remarkable for the beauty of
their teeth. Giraldus Cambrensis observes, as something very
extraordinary