ligion go hand in hand as part of the village life of
the people; in England primitive economics and _survivals_ of old
religions, which we call folklore, go hand in hand as part of the
village life of the people. And it is not in the province of students
to separate one from the other when they are considering the question
of origin.

This is practically the whole of my argument from the folklore point
of view. But it is not the whole of the argument against the theory
of the Roman origin of the village community. I cannot on this
occasion re-state what this argument is, as it is set forth at some
length in my book. But I should like to point out that it is in
reality supported by arguments to be drawn from ethnological facts.
Mr. Ashley surrenders to my view of the question the important point
that ethnological data, derived from craniological investigation, fit
in "very readily with the supposition that under the Celtic, and
therefore under the Roman rule, the cultivating class was largely
composed of the pre-Celtic race; and allows us to believe that the
agricultural population was but little disturbed." Economically it was
certainly not disturbed by the Romans. If the agricultural implements
known to and used by the Romans were never used in Britain after their
departure; if the old methods of land-surveying under the agrimensores
is not to be traced in Britain as a continuing system; if wattle and
daub, rude, uncarpentered trees turned root upwards to form roofs,
were the leading principles of house-architecture, it cannot be
alleged that the Romans left behind any permanent marks of their
economical standard upon the "little disturbed agricultural
population." Why, then, should they be credited with the introduction
of a system of lordship and serf-bound tenants, when both lordship and
serfdom are to be traced in lands where Roman power has never
penetrated, under conditions almost exactly similar to the feudal
elements in Europe? If it be accepted that the early agricultural
population of Britain was non-Aryan; if we find non-Aryan agricultural
rites and festivals surviving as folklore among the peasants of
to-day; why should it be necessary, why should it be accepted as a
reasonable hypothesis, to go to the imperial and advanced economics of
Rome to account for those other elements in the composition of the
village community which, equally with the rites and festivals, are to
be found paralleled among the non-